Dreams of Her Past
by tona234angel
Summary: Next story in my "Sister's Life" series: Katie's always had nightmares. Her entire life seemed like one nightmare after another and to add to it, Sam's missing. Dean and Katie are on the trail, but something strange starts to happen when Katie sleeps
1. Chapter 1

_So here's ch. 1. I hope you guys like it. laceym chose my litle torture subject (Sam) and SciFiNutTX has been playing beta again so special thanks to them._

_**Chapter 1**_

The last hunt had been pretty rough on all of them. The zombie chick had done a number on Sam's right hand, but what really had him rattled was Dean's little roadside confession. Dean was convinced that their dad had died to save him. Sam had been thinking the same thing for weeks, but didn't really wanna say so because he was afraid of how Dean would take it. Their sister's reaction also had Sam a little upset.

Katie hadn't said one word, but the look on her face spoke volumes. Sam was convinced that she knew exactly what had happened to their father back at that hospital in Missouri and wasn't talking. It was entirely possible that their dad had sworn her to secrecy, but Sam didn't really care. John was his father too and he felt he had the right to know.

They had only driven an hour out of Lawrence to Winchester, Kansas. The irony of the town's name was not lost on Sam. He had hoped to continue the conversation from earlier when Dean stopped at the only motel in town, but he should've known better. Dean had given Katie just enough time to set and cast Sam's hand before he announced that he was going out. Katie asked Dean if he wanted company and Dean's answer was, they were both going whether they wanted to or not.

Two hours later, Sam found himself sitting at the bar…alone. Katie was sitting in a corner booth making out with some guy in a black cowboy hat and Dean was doing the same with a waitress on the other side of the room. Sometimes it scared him how much alike those two really were. The painkillers Katie had given Sam just after she finished casting his wrist had wiped him out and all he wanted to do was go back to the room and sleep. After several minutes of debating with himself, he decided that's exactly what he was gonna do.

He looked back over to where he'd last seen Dean, but his brother was no longer there. A quick scan of the room put Dean on the dance floor with his waitress. Katie wasn't far away with her cowboy. Sam walked up to them and it took a few attempts to get their attention long enough for him to tell them that he was going back to the room. He thought he'd seen a look pass between his siblings' dates, but he convinced himself that it was just the medication. Dean handed him the keys to the Impala and told him not to wait up.

Sam nodded and then headed for the door. Just before the door could close behind him, he heard Katie call his name. He was about to go back into the bar when the door opened and his sister stepped outside.

"Are you ok?" Katie asked her voice full of concern.

"Yeah." Sam replied. "I'm just tired and my hand hurts."

"I know you still wanna talk about what Dean said on the road earlier. I can come back to the room with you if you want." Katie said.

"What about the guy?" Sam asked.

"Who? Mr. Black Hat? He's just a toy." Katie replied. "You're my little brother."

"It's ok." Sam said. "You go play with your toy. I just wanna sleep. I'll see you when you get back."

"O- k." Katie said reluctantly. "But if you can't sleep or decide you wanna talk anyway you better call me."

"I will." Sam replied.

Katie lightly punched Sam in the arm before heading back inside. He'd been tempted to take her up on her offer, but he knew she would never tell him what he wanted to know so he let it go.

Sam had just reached the Impala and was taking the keys out of his pocket when he heard a woman call for help. He looked up from the car just in time to see a man pulling a woman into a dark alley. Without a second thought, Sam dropped the keys to the car and ran into the alley. Just as he was about to grab the man and stop him from whatever he was trying to do, Sam felt something hit him in the back of the head and everything went black.

--

Sam awoke to the sound of dripping water. His clothes had been removed down to his underwear and his hands were shackled above his head. He tried to get an idea of his surroundings, but all he could see was blackness. He didn't realize it was cold until his body started to shiver.

"Who are you?" Sam called out. "What do you want?"

He asked the same questions over and over again, but no one answered. After several minutes, Sam began to panic. His thoughts quickly went to his brother and sister. Were they locked up here somewhere as well or were they free? Did they even know he was missing?

Suddenly, the room was filled with a brilliant white light coming from the opposite wall. After being in the dark for who knew how long it hurt his eyes. Before he could get a chance to focus, the light was gone and another had taken it's place from above his head. This light was a very creepy green that cast everything into shadow, but at least he could see something.

From what he could make out in the green light, he was in round room made out of some kind of brick and there was a large drain in the floor a few feet away. The other side of the room was still covered in blackness, so he couldn't tell exactly how big his prison was. When he looked up he saw some kind of pulley system that the chains around his wrists went into.

He was about to start asking questions again when he heard a strange squeaking noise. The sound echoed throughout the room so he had no idea where it was coming from. He was trying to see into the shadows to find the source of the sound when a movement caught his eye directly in front of him. A few seconds later two people walked out of the shadows. One of them was pulling a small cart that was the source of the squeaking.

"Who are you?" Sam asked again.

The only answer Sam got was silence. The two had stopped a foot away from him so even the cart stopped squeaking. Sam took a good look at his captors. The only thing he could really tell about them was that one was male and the other female. They were wearing all black; even their heads were covered so he couldn't make out any more details.

He wanted to ask again who they were, but they started moving around the cart so he decided to keep quiet and watch. Several things grabbed his attention as he watched them. The cart had what appeared to be several supplies on it for doing surgery. There were scalpels, scissors, sewing needles, hypodermic needles, and thread. What he thought was strange was the item on the bottom of the cart. Sam saw what could only be a large bag of rock salt.

As Sam was trying to figure out what the rock salt was doing there, the man picked up a scalpel and headed toward him. Sam noticed the movement a little too late. The man closed in quickly and sliced into Sam's stomach. The incision was small, but very deep. Sam cried out and kicked the man in the knee.

Before he could get in another kick, a chain came out from the wall behind him and wrapped around his ankle. A second soon followed and he was then pulled back against the wall. Sam's head bounced off the wall, causing him to see stars and nearly black out again. A third chain then wrapped around his neck, pinning him in place.

The man advanced on him again, this time the woman and the squeaky cart followed. When they got close enough to reach Sam the man turned and handed the scalpel to the woman. She, in turn, handed him a set of tweezers. The man turned around and used the tweezers to pull a piece of rock salt out of the bag. He then turned back toward Sam and used the tweezers to push the rock salt into the incision he'd made in Sam's abdomen.

Sam cried out again and tried to move away, but there was nothing he could do. After several more pieces of rock salt were stuffed into the first incision the man made a second. He followed this procedure until there were twelve salt filled incisions on Sam's body. He then proceeded to stitch the wounds closed, trapping the salt into the incisions.

The pain was intense. It took everything Sam had to keep from crying out again. Before the man had finished stitching him up, Sam passed out.


	2. Chapter 2

_And here is chapter 2. Thanks to everyone reading and reviewing this. Special thanks to lacey for playing beta and choosing my victim and to SciFiNutTX for playing beta as well._

_**Chapte**__**r 2**_

Katie woke up early the next morning. Her first thought was that something wasn't quite right. The last thing she remembered was talking to Sam outside the bar and now she was in someone's bed and fully clothed. She'd only had two beers by that point, so why couldn't she remember. She heard some one moan behind her so she rolled over.

Dean was lying in another bed next to her. After a quick check of her surroundings, she realized she was back in the motel room she shared with her brothers. The problem was that she wasn't sleeping on the small couch in the room like she should've been, or rather not sleeping. Which had been the case since they'd left Bobby's.

"Where's Sam?" Dean and Katie said together as they both sat bolt upright in bed.

Katie was suddenly hit with an intense headache and extreme nausea. She quickly lay back down and closed her eyes against the spinning room. The noises she heard coming from Dean in the bed next to her told her that he was feeling the same thing. Katie waited until the feeling passed and then sat up more slowly. She looked over at Dean and saw that he had one arm across his eyes.

"I know this." Katie said.

"Know what?" Dean asked, still not moving.

"This feeling." Katie replied. "This has happened before."

"It's called a hangover, sis." Dean said as he finally began to stir.

"I haven't had a hang over since Sam's twenty first birthday in Las Vegas." Katie replied. "Besides, I only had two beers. I think some one drugged us."

"I'll call Sam's cell." Dean said as he reached into his pocket for his phone. "You go see where the car is."

"No problem." Katie replied as she slowly got up from the bed.

Once Katie was sure she could move without puking, she headed for the door. The Impala was sitting right in front of their room like it had been there all night. She walked closer to it and heard a phone ringing from inside the car. She got even more freaked out about Sam's disappearance when she opened the door. Inside, she found Sam's clothes as well as the keys to the Impala still in the ignition.

Katie quickly gathered up Sam's belongings and the car keys and hurried back into the room.

"I just got his voicemail." Dean said.

"Yeah, well I have his phone and his clothes." Katie replied as she set the bundle on the foot of Dean's bed. "I also found the car keys in the ignition."

"Son of a bitch." Dean yelled.

"We'll find him." Katie said soothingly.

"How?" Dean asked.

"We'll start back at the bar. See if anyone has any info about the two we were with last night." Katie replied.

"You think they had something to do with this?" Dean asked.

"Under the circumstances, I bet they had everything to do with this." Katie said. "They seemed a little too much our types."

"Let's go." Dean said as he rose quickly.

Unfortunately, he stood a little too quickly and promptly went racing for the bathroom. While Dean was occupied, Katie took the time to grab her med bag from its hiding spot under the backseat of the car and fill a hypodermic needle with something from one of the phials. She laid the needle down on the table and then stood to check her weapons.

The 9mills were right where they were supposed to be in the holsters on her back. She checked the case strapped to the upper part of her left arm and found the iron bladed knife in its place. She put her right foot up on a nearby chair and found the .38 in its ankle holster. She then switched feet and found her silver boot knife gone. Laura had made that knife and Katie was baffled as to why anyone would take it and leave the other weapons.

Katie was still pondering the mystery of the knife when Dean came out of the bathroom. His face was ashen but she wasn't sure if it was from the bout of vomiting or that some one had taken Sam, probably both.

"Come here and let me see your right shoulder." Katie said as she reached for the needle.

"What's that?" Dean asked as he walked toward her and slid his arm out of his jacket and overshirt.

"It's Compazine." Katie replied. "It'll take the nausea away."

"I knew having you around would come in handy Dr. Winchester." Dean replied with a smile.

"I thought I was just here for the change of scenery." Katie replied with a smile of her own as she injected Dean. "Now let's go."

The older Winchester siblings practically ran out the door. The were on their way to the only bar in Winchester, Kansas a few seconds later.

--

Dean and Katie saw the smoke from several blocks away. Deep down they both hoped that it wasn't coming from the bar where they'd last seen their brother, but their lives were never that simple. There was nothing left of the place but ashes and charred wood. Katie noticed that all of the cars sitting in the parking lot were the same ones she had seen when Sam left.

Dean quickly parked the car and the two of them got out. They calmly walked up to the nearest fireman and asked what happened.

"No idea really." the man replied. "All we know is that the place went up between nine and ten last night. Everyone inside was killed."

"Why couldn't they get out?" Katie asked.

"We're still trying to figure that one out." the man said.

"Thanks." Dean said as he grabbed Katie's arm and steered her back toward the car.

When they were back inside the Impala, Katie looked at Dean.

"Why didn't you let me look around?" Katie asked. "I might've been able to find something they missed."

"Because the bartender from last night is over talking to a police officer a few feet from where we were standing." Dean replied.

Katie looked out the windshield toward the fireman they had just talked to. Dean was right; the man talking to the cop was the bartender working last night.

"Well, I wonder where he wandered off to before the fire started." Katie said.

"I say we follow him and find out." Dean said with a smirk.

They sat in the car and watched the bartender. After thirty minutes of being questioned by the police he was handcuffed, put into a squad car and taken away from the scene.

"Well, that figures." Dean and Katie said together.

"Now what do we do?" Dean asked.

"See what we can dig up on the bartender." Katie suggested.

"That's better than what I was gonna say." Dean said.

"No jail breaks unless it's absolutely necessary." Katie said as Dean started the car.

They spent the entire day digging up info on the bartender. What they found just led from one dead end to another. They were so frustrated and angry that they had decided a jailbreak was exactly what they needed. They went straight to the jail to do a little recon just before visiting hours were over only to find out that the man had hung himself an hour before they got there.

There was one thing that kept popping up and it was bugging the crap out of Katie. A symbol she recognized from somewhere, but couldn't place it. It was all over books and things inside the bartender's apartment. Dean also recognized the symbol and was having the same problem of remembering where he saw it before. They decided to grab a quick bite to eat and head back to the motel to do some research on Katie's laptop.


	3. Chapter 3

_Thanks to everyone reading and reviewing. I hope you like this chapter. Thanks again to laceym and SciFiNutTX. Some one has to keep a little bit of sanity in my life, although I make it hard on them :D_

_**Chapter 3**_

In the day Dean and Katie spent trying to find leads; Sam was put through three more sessions. The last one occurring just as Katie began her research into the symbol she and Dean found. Each time, twelve deep incisions were made into his body and then sewn closed with rock salt inside them. He was now running a fever and several of the first wounds already showed signs of infection.

Now Sam was in a restless sleep oblivious to the fact that some one with night vision goggles had been watching him the whole time. The girl watched him from the top of his cell, through a hidden panel in the ceiling.

"Try again." A man in a black cowboy hat said. "She may be asleep by now."

The girl simply nodded, pulled out a silver knife from her pocket, and then closed her eyes. She began to concentrate all her ability on the owner of that knife. Instead of the wall she usually ran into, she found the girl's mind completely open, meaning that the knife's owner was finally asleep. With her eyes still closed she pulled a black bracelet from her other pocket that belonged to Sam. Within a few short minutes she was guiding the youngest Winchester into his sister's memories.

--

Sam found himself standing in the corner of a white room. He took a quick look at his new surroundings and was a bit surprised at what he saw.

In the room were two small beds, one on each side of the wall. The frames were white as well as the sheets and blankets that covered them. Between the beds was a white table and two white chairs. There was also a white bookcase in one corner and all the books on the shelves were covered in white paper. There was also a large white dresser with five drawers on the opposite wall from where he was standing.

Next to the dresser was a white door that stood slightly a-jar. He walked toward the door. When he was just about to open it he heard some one crying softly. It sounded as if a small girl was just on the other side of the door.

He knocked, but no one answered. After another attempt he gently pushed the door open and walked into the other room. He found not only one girl, but two. One was sitting on top of the toilet crying and the other was wiping her face with a wet washrag. Both girls were covered in bruises from head to toe. The one on the toilet lid was also bleeding slightly from a split lip.

"Oh my God." Sam said. "What happened to you?"

Neither of the girls acknowledged his presence, let alone answered his question. They just kept right at what they were doing. One crying and the other trying to soothe. He made several more attempts to talk to them, but they still said nothing to him.

"I wish dad would come." the crying girl said.

"I know." the other replied stoically.

"Why hasn't he come yet?"

"Because he doesn't know where we are."

"But Dean found us." the crying girl said. "Why doesn't Dad just ask him?"

"Because he doesn't know that Dean found us." the other girl said. "Dean doesn't even know for sure that he found us cause we can't write him back."

At the mention of Dean, Sam took a real good look at the girls. Both were blond and looked to be about four or five years old. The one sitting on the toilet had green eyes like his brother and the other had brown eyes. It was then that Sam realized he was looking at his sisters. He knew Katie had brown eyes, so the other must've been Laura.

Sam was at a total loss for words. He couldn't explain how he knew it; he just knew he was somehow seeing one of Katie's memories. He was still processing the information when a man burst into the room. He grabbed Katie by her wrist and hauled her out into the main room.

"I thought I told you to let her bleed." the man said menacingly.

Katie just stood there glaring. The man stood over the small girl and then balled up his fist and punched Katie right in her face. Sam heard Laura call out her name as Katie fell to the floor. Sam couldn't believe what happened next. Katie stood right back up and with blood pouring from her nose, started glaring at the man again. What amazed Sam even more was that there were no tears in the little girl's eyes.

The staring contest only lasted a few minutes. The man then balled up both his fists and proceeded to beat the small girl into the ground. Sam looked over to Laura and saw his other sister crying and calling out Katie's name. The man continued to beat on Katie until she stopped moving and then threw in a few more punches for good measure. When he was finished, the man then stalked toward the crying Laura.

"Don't you touch her!" Katie yelled.

Sam looked over at Katie just in time to see the five-year-old version of his sister try to rise and then slump back onto the ground unconscious.

--

Sam was awakened by an unbearable stinging all over his body. It took him a few minutes to remember where he was. The dream he'd just had seemed so real that he still wasn't quite sure what to make of it. Was some one messing with his head or had that really happened to Katie?

Sam was still pondering this when the pain hit him again. It was then that he realized there was a steady stream of water coming from somewhere above his head. The water was making the already unbearable pain from his cuts even worse. Sam lifted his head up just enough to open his mouth and taste the water. He promptly spit it back out the second he tasted salt.

Sam had finally had enough. He began to yell and scream at the top of his lungs. After several minutes, the water stopped and the door opened. Two men entered, followed by the girl. The two men walked right up to Sam and grabbed his head. Sam tried to struggle, but they held him firmly.

Sam could do nothing as the woman walked up to him and proceeded to sew Sam's lips together. When that was done, one of the men and the woman left the room. A few minutes passed and then the woman returned, but instead of bringing the squeaky cart with her, she carried only a scalpel. The man took the scalpel from his associate and then proceeded to reopen all of the previous wounds he'd inflicted on Sam.

When he'd finished opening all of the old wounds, Sam was spun around so that he was facing the wall and his back was to his assailants. The man then proceeded to carve up Sam's back. When he'd finished he slapped Sam's back and then walked out of the room. The water started again as soon as the door closed and Sam passed out from the pain.


	4. Chapter 4

_Thanks to everyone reading and reviewing this. I'm glad you all like it so much. I'm posting a bit earlier than I intended because, well I'm bored and I don't wanna clean my house. :) Special thanks to SciFiNutTX and laceym for playing betas for me, even though they say I'm scaring them with parts of this. I also forgot to mention that the part with the salt water in the last chapter wasn't my idea, that came from my 12 year old nephew who is now almost as big an SN fan as I am. He's a twisted little kid, but I think that's why I like him so much._

_**Chapter 4**_

"Katie." Dean called as he shook his sister's shoulder. "Katie wake up."

He'd been trying to wake her up since the nightmare began. She'd fallen asleep over her computer almost as soon as she'd started researching. Dean thought about waking her up, but she hadn't been sleeping much since before they'd left Bobby's so he left her to catch up on her sleep. Now he couldn't wake her up.

He was about to go get a glass of ice to pour down the back of her shirt when she suddenly sat up and screamed.

"SAM!!"

Dean was back at Katie's side in a matter of seconds. She was breathing heavily and the look on her face had him freaked out. He began to rub her back in an effort to calm her down. After several minutes, seemed like a lifetime to Dean, her breathing evened out and she relaxed.

"What happened?" Dean asked.

"I-I don't know how to explain it." Katie replied.

"Try." Dean coached.

"It wasn't really a dream." Katie began. "It was a memory, one of the beatings I took when Laura and I were with Them."

"So why did you scream out Sam's name when you finally woke up?" Dean asked, still rubbing his sister's back.

"Because it changed." Katie said as she began to start shaking. "After the memory I-I saw Sam."

Katie began to shake more violently. Dean got the impression that she was more afraid of how he would react if she told him, so he tried to placate her.

"It's ok." Dean said soothingly. "Just tell me."

Dean locked eyes with Katie and nodded. He watched and waited as she took a deep breath to ease her shaking.

"They were hurting him." Katie said barely above a whisper.

"What do you mean? Who was hurting him?" Dean said as his anxiety level rose.

"I don't know." Katie replied. "He's locked up somewhere dark and they're hurting him."

Dean knew Katie was holding something back, but decided it was probably better that he didn't know exactly what was happening to their brother. That's when an idea hit him.

"It could've just been a dream." Dean said. "We don't know that's what's really happening to him."

"It is." Katie said flatly.

"How do you know?" Dean asked genuinely curious.

"Because when he was captured by the vampires just after we left Bobby's I saw it happen." Katie replied. "You guys left me at the motel cause my wrist was still messed up. I went to sleep and dreamed Sam was taken. When I woke up, I found out that it had really happened. I think that's the side effect from Racheal's link."

"Has it happened any other time?" Dean asked a bit furious that Katie had neglected to mention that before now.

"Not exactly." Katie said sheepishly.

"What does that mean?"

"While we were still at Bobby's something else started." Katie replied. "If Sam and I were asleep at the same time I would see his dreams."

"Which is why you haven't been sleeping." Dean said. "You were afraid he would see something in your dreams that you didn't want him to."

Katie nodded and then looked down at her feet. Dean cupped her chin in his hand and raised her head up to look at him.

"We'll find him." Dean said sternly.

"I know." Katie replied. "I'm gonna get back to work."

"Is there anything you want me to do?" Dean asked hoping for a distraction from his own thoughts.

"How bout a food and coffee run?" Katie said with a small smile.

"Yeah, no problem." Dean replied as he grabbed his coat and headed for the door.

It wasn't the distraction he was looking for, but it would have to do. Maybe Katie would have something by the time he got back.

"Anything specific you want?" Dean asked as he reached for the doorknob.

"A white chocolate caramel cappuccino" Katie replied.

Dean shook his head as he left the room and got into his car. Sam really did have a bad influence on his sister while they were at school together.

Not even the sound of the Impala's engine could soothe his ragged nerves. This was just starting to be too much all at once. First their dad's death and now Sam's disappearance. He knew he'd lose it if they didn't find Sam soon.

As he drove to the nearest diner, Dean couldn't help but think all of this was his fault. If he had paid closer attention when their dad had been posessed, he could've caught on a lot sooner and ended all of this. Not that he could've actually shot his dad, but he should've done something. Sam's disappearance was his fault too. He knew Sam was hurting because of his hand, but he had wanted to relieve some pressure and he wanted his family close by.

Now Sam was gone and according to Katie, the people who took him were doing some damage. She had held back the details of her dream because she was afraid of what that knowledge would do to him. The fact that she'd done that meant it was really bad.

Dean's thoughts were still on Sam as he pulled into the parking lot of the diner. He went inside, quickly made his order and then hurried back to the motel. He'd been a little afraid of leaving Katie alone, but he'd also seen her kick their dad's butt a few times so he wasn't that worried.

He knew when he was a block away from the motel that something was seriously wrong. The feeling was confirmed as he pulled into the parking lot. There were two ambulances parked near the room he had just left and the door was open. Dean quickly parked the Impala and ran toward his room. He was just about to enter when the paramedics came out with a gurney.


	5. Chapter 5

_Thanks to everyone reading and reviewing this. I'm glad you all like it so much. Sorry I fogot to warn you guys bout the cliffie at the end of the last chapter. Feel free to fillet me when I finish this. :D Special thanks to SciFiNutTX and laceym as always for playing beta for me and special thanks to my nephew whose been giving me ideas for this since chapter 3._

_**Chapter 5**_

"Katie." Dean called.

"I'm in here." she replied from inside the room.

He looked at the gurney and saw a man with several knife wounds to his stomach and chest. Dean bounced back and forth on his feet until they were out of the way. When the gurney was clear, he quickly ran into the room and went straight to his sister.

Katie was sitting on Sam's bed. A paramedic was trying to get her to move her hand away from her left shoulder and she was putting up a fight.

"Let him take a look." Dean ordered as he put his hand on her good shoulder.

"It's just a scratch." Katie replied. "I can fix it myself if these people would leave me alone."

"Let him take a look." Dean repeated.

Katie gave him a dirty look and then moved her hand away so the paramedic could see.

"What happened?" Dean asked to distract his sister.

"Dude came in and took a shot at me." Katie replied.  
"You know him?" a cop asked as he walked into the room.

"Nope." Katie replied.

"You sure carved him up pretty good." The cop said.

"Yeah, well he was trying to kill me." Katie snapped. "What was I supposed to do, let him?"

Dean squeezed her shoulder as a warning because the cop was giving her a strange look.

"Sorry officer." Dean said. "She gets cranky when people shoot at her."

"So this happens often?" the officer asked.

"Occupational hazard." Katie replied.

"And what occupation would that be?" the cop asked.

"We're private investigators." Dean replied. "A young man disappeared some where in this area and his family hired us to find him."

"Well," the paramedic that was examining Katie's shoulder said as he stood up. "She needs a few stitches, but it's nothing major. We'd like to take her to the hospital now."

"I'll be fine." Katie said as she began to examine the wound herself. "I can take care of it."

"I really think you should let a doctor stitch you up." the paramedic said warily.

"I am gonna have a doctor stitch me up." Katie snapped.

"Who?" the cop asked.

"Me. I do have a license to practice medicine as well as experience as a paramedic." Katie replied snarkily, "If the motel manager hadn't called when he heard the shot, you guys probably wouldn't be here now."

"Ok then." the cop said. "We'll leave to let you get things sorted out, but I would like you to come to the station in the morning and give a statement,"

"No problem officer." Dean said quickly.

The room cleared out quickly after that. Dean let out a sigh as he closed the door and walked back toward Katie.

"Guy picked the lock while I went to take a shower." Katie replied. "I came out and he took a shot at me."

"And you carved him up." Dean added.

"I could've shot him," Katie said. "But then we wouldn't have anyone to talk to about Sam."

"You sure the guy's involved?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, he has the same symbol we found in the bartender's house tattooed on the back of his hand." Katie replied. "I know what it is now by the way."

"The symbol?" Dean said.

"No, the bald spot on the back of your head. Of course the symbol." Katie said irritatedly.

"What is it?" Dean asked ignoring Katie's sarcasm.

"The symbol for a cult." Katie said.

"Well that's just great. We get to play with human nut jobs." Dean gripped.

"Dean." Katie said quietly.  
The tone of her voice when she said his name completely threw him. He wasn't expecting her to get sad all of a sudden.

"What is it?" Dean said. "What's wrong?"

"It's the same people that killed Laura." Katie replied in the same tone.

"What?" Dean exclaimed. "Are you sure?"

Katie walked over to the table her laptop was sitting on and turned it so he could see the screen. He recognized the old article almost immediately. The headline read: "Local Girl Killed by Cult in Carlin Canyon."

Dean was speechless. The same people that had tortured and killed Katie's twin nearly ten years ago had taken his brother.

"Does your shoulder need stitches?" Dean asked.

"No." Katie replied. A couple butterflies will hold it just fine."  
Dean grabbed the first aid kit off the table and handed it to Katie. She quickly took care of the injury and slid on her coat. A minute later, they were in the car and on their way to the hospital to interview the guy that tried to kill Katie.

--

As hard as she tried to fight it, Katie fell asleep on the way to the hospital in the next town. That's when it started again, but instead of it going through one of her memories first, the dream went straight to Sam. He was lying on his back on the floor next to a large drain and covered in blood. A chain was wrapped around his wrists and the cast she had put on him the day before was starting to crack. Katie quickly knelt down beside him, but there was nothing she could do but look at his injuries.

He was covered in cuts. Upon closer examination, Katie saw that the cuts could only have been made by a surgical instrument. All of them were red and had puss coming out of them. A closer look at Sam's face told her what she already knew, he had a fever. What she didn't expect to see was that some one had sewn his mouth shut.

Sam moaned in his sleep and then rolled so that his back was facing her. What she saw made her gasp in shock. His back was covered in deep gashes. The edges of some of the gashes were smooth and others were ragged. All had been made by the same instrument as the cuts on Sam's front.

Katie wanted more than anything to grab Sam and get him out of there, but since she was dreaming there was nothing she could do. Sam moaned and then rolled over again so that he was facing her now. When she looked up to his face, his eyes were open.

"Sam, listen to me." Katie said. "You're still asleep. I'm not really here. We're both dreaming."

Sam gave her a strange look and then nodded.

"Dean and I are fine. We're trying to find you. You've just gotta hang in there a little bit longer."

Sam's eyes started to fill with tears and it broke Katie's heart.

"It'll be ok Sam. We'll be here soon. I promise."

A white light suddenly filled the room and Sam disappeared.

--

"Katie, we're here." Dean said.

Katie looked at Dean and nearly started crying.

"He's not gonna last much longer Dean." Katie said, the devastation clear in her voice. "We have to find him fast."

Dean reached across the front seat of the Impala and pulled Katie into a quick hug.

"He'll be alright." Dean said reassuringly. "We'll find him."

Katie nodded and the two got out of the car and headed into the hospital.


	6. Chapter 6

_Thanks to everyone reading and reviewing this._

_**Chapter 6**_

Sam was awake as they hauled his body upright by the chains around his wrists. He could still hear his sister's last words echoing around his head.

"It'll be ok Sam. We'll be here soon. I promise."

Several people had told Sam over the last few weeks that Katie never made a promise she didn't keep. He took his sister's words to heart as the beating began. His captors had apparently decided to forgo their carving work and go for an old-fashioned beat down. He never once opened his eyes while they were hitting him. He just kept himself lax and pretended to be asleep. After what seemed like a lifetime, he finally passed out.

--

Katie was still thinking about her vision of Sam as they walked into the hospital. She hoped that her words to Sam would help him survive long enough for her and Dean to find him. She and Laura had made it six years in their little cell, but even on a bad day, they didn't get it as bad as Sam was now. They usually stuck to using their fists on the two young girls. Being burnt by the cigarette lighter from a car was the worst that had ever happened. The thought of which had her rubbing the scar at the base of her neck.

She absent mindedly followed Dean through the hospital to the room the guy she'd sliced up was in. When she saw the man sleeping peacefully, it nearly threw her into a rage. Before Dean could stop her, she walked up and punched the guy right in the face.

"What the hell?" the man said as he rubbed his sore jaw.

When he saw his assailant, he started to panic. The man reached for the call button, but Dean had pulled it from the wall immediately after Katie had hit the guy.

"My brother doesn't get to sleep right now, so neither do you." Katie sneered. "Now you are going to tell us where he is or I'm gonna do a little torture of my own, starting with a castration."

The man's eyes grew wider as Katie pulled a large hunting knife from inside her coat. He looked over to Dean, as if Dean would save him, and that's when Katie saw the long scar down the side of his neck. The scar started just below his ear and disappeared somewhere inside his hospital gown. Katie leaned closer to that ear.

"I know you." Katie whispered. "I gave you that scar a few months after you helped murder my sister."

Now the man's eyes looked like they were gonna pop out of his head any second. He looked over at Dean again, but Dean just stood there. Katie stood back up and began to reach for the man's mid section.

"Alright." the man yelled. "I'll tell you anything you want, but please don't cut me up anymore."

"Where's Sam?" Dean asked.

"At the compound." the man replied. His voice full of fear.

"And where exactly is that?" Katie asked.

"In, in Easton." the man replied.

"How many people are there in your compound?" Dean asked.

"A-about two hundred men and women." the man said shakily.

"Now, the million dollar question." Katie said, "What do you people want with Sam?"

"To make him as the master wants him." the man replied with a little more confidence. "In doing so, we will be given a place of honor in his new world."

Something inside Katie snapped at that moment. The image of Sam lying on a cement floor bleeding and his entirely too pale face flashed into her mind. She raised the hand holding the knife, flipped it around in her hand so that the blade was pointing downward, and drove it into the man's chest. The guy was so surprised and Katie moved so fast, he had no time to call out for help.

Katie let go of the knife and reached into her pocket. She pulled out a blue and white handkerchief and then proceeded to wipe down the handle. When that was done, she took one of the man's hands and wrapped it around the knife handle. She then walked around to the other side of the bed, pushing Dean slightly to get past him, did the same with the dead guy's other hand and walked out of the room.

--

Dean had felt it happen, but didn't react fast enough to stop Katie. Truth was, he was to stunned by the change he felt in her. It was like the girl he knew had vanished and a ruthless, unfeeling killer was left in her place. She'd told him about the blackouts she'd had just after she got her and Laura out of their prison, but he'd never actually seen it before. The only thing he could do was watch as she killed the man in the bed and then proceeded to make it look like he'd killed himself.

Dean followed her out of the room. Making sure to switch off the light and close the door behind him. She'd told him before that the only way to snap her out of the blackouts was to knock her out, but he wasn't sure if he could. They walked out of the hospital a different way than they came in and as soon as Katie had closed the passenger door to the Impala, she was asleep.

Dean started the car and sat for a minute before deciding to go back to their motel in Winchester. There was no way he and Katie could take on two hundred people by themselves. They needed help and fast. It was only a ten-minute drive back to the motel, but as soon as he'd hit the freeway, Katie started to whimper. He knew she was having another nightmare, but didn't try to wake her.

He drove to the motel, ran in and grabbed their stuff, and then got back into the car. He'd decided to go to Easton and get a room there. He'd call Bobby and Racheal when they got there and then grab a couple hours sleep while he waited. Katie was supposed to talk to the cops in a few hours and after what had happened at the hospital, he didn't want them anywhere around.

The drive to Easton from Winchester took another ten minutes. Five minutes after that he had them booked into a room. He carried Katie into the room, laid her on the bed farthest from the door, and then brought in their stuff. His body seemed to lose all energy the second he touched her. He was sitting on the other bed debating whether he should call Bobby or Racheal first when Katie's phone rang in her pocket. He quickly got up, took the phone out of his sister's coat, and answered it.

"Hello."

"Dean?" Racheal said. "Why are you answering Grace's phone?"

"She's asleep." Dean replied.

"That's never stopped her from answering the phone before." Racheal said.

"Yeah well, she's kind of having a nightmare and I can't wake her up." Dean said.

"Where are you?" Racheal asked urgently.

"Easton, Kansas."

"Oh crap, I was afraid of that." Racheal said. "Listen, the cult that killed Laura is in that area. If you can't wake Grace up then it means they know you're there and they're after her."

"Actually, they took Sam." Dean said. "I was just about to call you and your dad."

"We're on our way." Racheal said. "Just sit tight until we get there."

"That was the plan."

Dean hung up the phone and then collapsed onto the unoccupied bed. He was fast asleep in a matter of minutes.


	7. Chapter 7

_Thanks to everyone reading and reviewing. I'm glad everyone likes this so much. As usual, special thanks go out to laceym and SciFiNutTX for playing betas and my nephew, who has been a great help with this story._

_**Chapter 7**_

Katie could do nothing but watch as they beat on her little brother for nearly two hours. All of a sudden, she heard some one speaking.

"She's asleep." the woman said. "Leave him be."

Then everything changed and she was looking at herself and Laura when they were about three years old. Sam was there too, but he looked different. He was wearing the same clothes she'd found in the Impala and he didn't have a mark on him, save for the cast. He walked across the room and stood by her.

"What is this?" Sam asked.

"It's nothing." Katie said quickly. "You don't need to worry about it."

"That's you and Laura, isn't it?" Sam said.

"Just close your eyes and cover your ears Sam." Katie pleaded. "You don't need to see or hear this."

"Why?" Sam asked.

"Because we promised her." Katie said. "She made us promise that you would never find out."

"Find out what?" Sam pushed.

Just then, "He" walked into the room. He stomped past the girls and went into the little bathroom. A few seconds later, the sound of running water filled the room. The two little girls at the table kept at their task. Sam looked over little Laura's shoulder and saw that they were doing schoolwork.

"Sam, please." Katie pleaded. "I'm begging you not to watch this."  
Katie saw Sam open his mouth to say something, but before he could, the running water stopped and He walked out of the bathroom. He walked over to Laura and grabbed her around her waist. He lifted up the little girl, carried her into the bathroom, and dropped her into the tub. A second later, "She" walked in and shut the door behind her.

The woman gave little Katie a disgusted look and walked into the bathroom as He walked out. The man then grabbed Katie out of her seat, stood her in the doorway to the bathroom, and held her there. A few seconds after that, the entire room was filled with Laura's screams.

"This is what happens to dirty little girls." He hissed into little Katie's ear.

Katie tried to grab him, but missed as Sam pushed past her to see into the bathroom. She didn't have to see into the room to know what was happening, she still remembered pulling the splinters from the steel wool pad out of Laura. Then the screaming stopped and the splashing began. The woman had Laura upside down over her shoulder and was dunking Laura into the tub, headfirst.

"We have to do something." Sam said to Katie over his shoulder.

"We can't." Katie replied barely above a whisper. "It's just a dream."

Then next sound they heard was a loud crack. Little Laura had been kicking her legs while she was being held under and had just cracked one of Her ribs. Then there was a thud as Laura was tossed against the bathroom wall.

Little Katie had been struggling to free herself from the man's grasp the entire time. As the woman stormed past them, little Katie managed to turn herself and bite the man on his neck, drawing blood. He let her go to put his hand over the wound and little Katie ran into the bathroom to where her sister lay. The man stalked into the bathroom after little Katie and tried to reach past her to pick up Laura. The three year old waited until he was close enough and punched him in the face as hard as she could. The man stared at her in surprise for a second and then stormed out of the room, locking the door behind him.

Little Katie calmly got up from her position by her sister and walked into the bedroom. She grabbed a pillow and blanket off one of the beds carried the items back into the bathroom. She placed the pillow under Laura's head and set the blanket aside. The little girl then grabbed a towel out of a nearby cabinet and a pair of tweezers from the drawer. She walked back over to her sister's prone form and began to pull the metal slivers from her sister's body.

She had just pulled the last one from Laura's back when the man came back in. He was holding a cigarette lighter from his car and the thing was red hot. He grabbed little Katie by her arm and forced her to stand. He then spun her around and held the lighter to the base of her neck at approximately the same place she had bit him. The sound and smell of sizzling flesh filled the room.

The little girl never cried out. She didn't even flinch. She just stood there until the lighter cooled and He took it away from her skin. He left the room as quickly as he came in and little Katie went back to tending her sister.

Katie could feel Sam's eyes on her as she watched her younger self, but she couldn't face him. She'd tried so hard to keep her promise to Laura and then this happened. She didn't notice that Sam was now standing next to her until he put his hand on her shoulder. She looked at her brother's hand before she looked at his eyes and quickly turned her head away.

"Please don't look at me like that?" Katie whispered. "I don't need your pity."  
"How long did this go on?" Sam asked gently.

"Six years." Katie answered.

"Did Dad and Dean know?"

"Laura told Dean after we escaped, even though I begged her not too." Katie said. "Dad didn't find out until four years later, but some other stuff happened while we were in foster care that made him scared of me."

"Like what? You were just a kid." Sam asked, truly surprised.

"Some kid tried to hurt Laura and I killed him. Pistol-whipped him with his own gun according to Laura and the police report. I don't remember doing it though."

"Katie, I'm so sorry."  
"Sam, don't." Katie said. "It wasn't your fault. You were just a baby and had no idea you even had sisters until a few years ago. You have nothing to be sorry for."

Sam wrapped his arms around Katie and gave her a quick hug, but he didn't let go. The two stood and watched as little Katie wrapped Laura up in the blanket. The little girl then curled up next to her unconscious twin and went to sleep. That's when the vision changed again.

--

Sam held onto Katie as they were forced to watch more of her memories right up until the two girls, aged eight years old, escaped from their prison.

"Sam, listen to me. " Katie said quickly. "You're waking up. Dean and I know where you are now. We'll be there to get you in an hour or two. "

He was awakened from the vision by the man coming back. The man let out a small laugh and began to beat on him some more. Sam didn't cry out and he tried his best not to flinch as the blows came.

In their attempt to break him by showing him what his sisters had been put through they'd actually strengthened his resolve. As far as he was concerned, the last day or two was nothing compared to how Katie and Laura suffered. The biggest difference between what happened to them and what was happening to him was that the girls had no one to rescue them.

Katie had said she and Dean knew where he was. Sam just had to bide his time until the cavalry arrived.


	8. Chapter 8

_Thanks to everyone reading and reviewing. Here's chapter 8 for you._

_**Chapter 8**_

Katie was again stuck watching Sam get beaten. It broke her heart to see Sam trying to repeat the actions he'd seen her do as a child. It hurt her even more that he had seen all that. She just hoped that he wouldn't be able to remember all of that when they rescued him.

Katie was wishing that she could wake up so she wouldn't see anymore when someone touched her shoulder. She screamed and threw a punch, but it was caught.

"Nice to see you too, sis." Racheal said.

"Racheal?"

"In the flesh." Racheal replied. "Well sort of."

"How?" Katie faltered, but stopped. "Never mind. Can you get me out of this so we can rescue him?"

"That's what I'm here for." Racheal replied.

Katie sat bolt upright in bed and found herself surrounded by Bobby, Racheal, Heaven, and ten other hunters. She was about to say something when she was hit with a sudden and massive headache. She collapsed back onto the bed, holding her head with both hands. She felt some one squeeze her shoulder and the pain lessened.

"Sorry about that." Racheal said quietly. "I had to force the break. Some one else has been playing around in yours and Sam's heads."

"Where's Dean?" Katie said as she sluggishly propped herself up on her elbows.

"He's right here." Racheal said as she moved so Katie could see her brother.

"What's wrong with him?" Katie asked, suddenly freaked.

Dean was still asleep. He should've woke up when the others came in the room. Katie stared at her brother and then quickly got up and sat next to him on the bed.

"Dean." Katie said as she shook his shoulder. "Come on big brother it's time to wake up."

Katie suddenly felt drained when she touched Dean, but he stirred a little in his sleep so she shook him again. A few seconds later, she was staring into her brother's green eyes. Dean sat up in the bed just as Katie lost all her strength and collapsed against him.

"Wh-what the hell is happening to us?" Katie asked.

"What do you remember?" Racheal asked in return.

"Talking to some guy in the hospital and waking up here." Katie replied. "By the way, where is here? This doesn't look like the same room we were in before."

"Go get yourselves ready." Racheal said to the other hunters in the room. "We'll be out in a minute."

"Come on guys." Bobby said. "Let's leave the kids alone."

Bobby ushered the other hunters outside. As soon as the room cleared, Racheal spoke.

"Dean, we gotta get her on the other bed. We gotta put some distance between you two or one of you is gonna go back to dreamland."

Dean lifted Katie up and set her on the bed, then he went and sat at the table on the other side of the room.

"Dean," Racheal said. "What happened in the hospital last night?"

"We interrogated this guy that took a shot at Katie earlier that night to get Sam's location." Dean replied.

"I meant, what happened to your sister?" Racheal said.

"She's fine. Except for not getting a lot of sleep." Dean said.

"She blacked out, didn't she?" Racheal said.

"No way." Katie said suddenly afraid. "That hasn't happened since Kansas."

"You haven't been in a situation like this since then." Racheal said.

"What situation is that?" Dean asked.

"Forced to watch one of her siblings hurt and unable to stop it." Racheal replied.

"Dean," Katie said. "What did I do?"

"Nothing." Dean replied flatly.

"_Tell me."_ Katie said.

"_Nothing that shouldn't have been done a long time ago." _Dean said.

"He's dead." Katie said sadly.

Katie dropped her head. She was ashamed of what she'd done. She lost control and some one died…again. She was looking at the floor between the beds when a pair of boots came into view. She turned her head the other way and felt the bed shift as Dean sat next to her.

"You didn't do anything wrong." Dean said as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"_I killed some one Dean."_ Katie said. "_Some one that couldn't fight back."_

"_You were protecting your family."_ Dean said.

"That's no excuse." Katie yelled as she jumped off the bed and began to pace the room. "I lost control and some one died."

Dean stood up and stopped Katie from pacing by grabbing her shoulders. She didn't try to get away, but she still refused to look at him.

"Katie, look at me." Dean said sternly.

She wanted to, but couldn't bring herself to do so. Only Laura had seen her lose it like that and she'd never looked at Katie the same afterwards. Laura was afraid of her after that. Their father had the same look in his eyes nearly every time he looked at her from the moment he picked her up at Missouri's when she was twelve until after the incident in Georgia when she was twenty five. There was no way she could take that look from Dean now.

"_Look at me._" Dean said again.

Katie shook her head and tried to pull away from him. The action jarred the wound in her shoulder, but she tried anyway. She felt Dean tighten his grip and she knew he wasn't gonna let her go, so she stopped struggling. When she was still, he placed his hand under her chin and raised her head. She thought about closing her eyes, but decided against it and looked into her brother's eyes.

She didn't see a trace of fear in his eyes. All she saw there was his concern for her and his faith in her.

"You didn't do anything wrong." Dean said again. "Now what do you say we go get our little brother back?"

Katie nodded and headed for the door. Thirty minutes later, they were loaded for bear with thirteen other hunters as back up to get Sam back.


	9. Chapter 9

_Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing._

_**Chapter 9**_

They found the compound five miles north of town. The place was a beehive of activity as the people living there went about their daily routines, unaware that they were being watched. Katie spotted a strange building toward the back of the property that was made out of red brick.

"Sam's in that building." She whispered as she pointed to it.

"We may have to wait until dark." Bobby said. "There's too many people about now."  
"NO!" Dean and Katie said together. "We go now."  
"What good are we gonna be to your brother if we get ourselves killed trying to get in there?" one of the other hunters asked.

"Racheal and I will go." Katie replied.

"We can get into anything." Racheal added.

"No way." Dean and Bobby said.

"You're not going in there by yourselves." Heaven said.

"Look," Katie said. "It's the easiest way. We can go in and get Sam. You guys just need to create a diversion when we have him so we can get him out."

"Katie, no." Dean said sternly.

"Dean, it's the easiest way." Katie replied.

"_There's no way I'm letting you go in there._" Dean said.

"_I'll be fine._" Katie said. "_Sam won't be if we stand here arguing about this._"

"_Sam's my responsibility."_ Dean said.

"_And you're mine_" Katie said. "_Please trust me? Racheal and I can get him out."_

The two older Winchesters stared at each other for a few minutes before Dean nodded. Katie reached out and squeezed his hand before heading back to Racheal's car. The truth was she was afraid of how Dean would react if her older brother saw Sam in that place.

"Aren't you going the wrong way?" Bobby asked.

"Just getting something out of the car." Katie replied.

Racheal tossed her the keys and she grabbed three silencers out of the trunk. She tossed one to Racheal and then attached the other two to her 9mills.

"Now why didn't we think of that?" another of the hunters asked.

"Hey Dean." Racheal said. "Think you can get close enough to the gates without being seen to set a few explosives?"

"Oooh." Katie said as her eyes lit up. "I knew there was a reason I liked you."

"Heaven, Dad, and I were already on our way here to do a little damage. We were only an hour out when I called your phone." Racheal said.  
"You called me?" Katie asked.

"You were occupied." Dean answered. "So I answered your phone."  
Katie shrugged, then she and Racheal headed along the fence to the back of the property. Just as Katie landed on the other side of the wall, a man came by. Katie pulled her gun, but the guy dropped to the ground with blood oozing out one side of his head before she could get a shot off. She looked up and gave Racheal a wave just before her friend hit the ground next to her.

"Thanks." Katie whispered.

"You're welcome." Racheal whispered back.

They found an entrance to the building a few feet away and proceeded to go inside. Once there, they found a set of stairs leading down so they followed them. When they got to the bottom of the stairs, they found two more guards and a locked door. The girls took the guards out easily and then Racheal picked the lock.

Inside the second room, they found two people. Katie recognized them immediately as the guy and girl that she and Dean had almost hooked up with at the bar. The girl was holding the silver boot knife Laura had made. Racheal took the guy out in one shot and Katie put a round into the girl's shoulder. Katie then walked over to the crying, writhing girl and grabbed her up by her hair.

"You tell me where my brother is or I'll slice your throat." Katie hissed as she picked up the discarded knife.

"He's, he's one level below us." the girl sobbed.

Katie nodded and then squeezed off one more round from her gun. The girl lay motionless on the ground.

"I think that was their psychic." Racheal said quietly.

"Yeah, well now she's worm food." Katie said as she headed for the next set of stairs.

The room at the bottom of the stairs was completely dark. They had just stepped off the last stair when someone screamed.

"You killed my daughter!"

Katie and Racheal stepped to the sides of the staircase and ducked down just as a shot flew past Katie's head.

"You can't hide." the woman sneered. "You can't see me, but I can see you."

Another shot rang out and Racheal ducked down just in time to keep her brains from being splattered on the wall behind her. The two hunters quickly found a spot to hide behind the stairs so they could regroup.

"Night vision?" Racheal asked.

"Yep." Katie replied.

"Flashlight?"

"In my pocket." Katie replied. "You take the shot."

The girls crossed paths and came out from behind the stairs in the opposite directions they had gone in. Katie pulled the flashlight out of her pocket and quickly started to scan the room with it. Another shot rang out, but this one caught Racheal in her shoulder. Katie saw the muzzle flash and focused her flashlight beam in that spot. Katie managed to hit the exact right spot just as the woman fired again. The woman shooting at them cried out as the beam from the flashlight blinded her. A split second later she was dead on the floor after Racheal took a shot of her own.

"Looks like there was more than one psychic here." Racheal said.

"Yeah, we could be in some serious trouble." Katie said back.

Just as Katie was about to turn and head for the next room, something caught her attention in the flashlight beam behind where the dead woman had been standing. It was the cart she had seen in one of her dreams of Sam. There were bloody scalpels on it as well as two more pairs of night vision goggles and the bag of rock salt. Above the cart was a panel with several switches on it. Katie walked over to the panel and read the labels next to the switches.

"Hey Rache?" Katie said.

"Yeah." Racheal replied.

"What do you say we turn the tables on our new friends here?" Katie asked. "There should be one more person in here somewhere and I bet the guy is in with Sam now. According to this panel the main lights are on in there instead of the green one."  
"I'm following." Racheal said. "We shut off all the lights and go in with their goggles. It would definitely be a lot easier to take the guy out."

"This says that the chains around Sam's wrists have been pulled up, so he's standing. I'm gonna drop him after we kill the lights. Hopefully that will keep him out of the crossfire." Katie added.

The girls quickly put their plan into motion. They put on the goggles, made sure the door to Sam's prison was unlocked, and then killed the lights. Several gunshots rang out as they opened the door and ran in. Katie tucked and rolled, then got her bearings on the guy and put a bullet into his leg. She wanted him to suffer a little bit for what he'd done to Sam. Four more shots from her gun later, the man was dead.

Katie was kneeling by her little brother's side a few seconds later.

"Racheal." Katie called. "Go turn the lights back on."  
"You got it." Racheal replied.

As soon as the lights came on, Katie went into action. Sam was unconscious as far as she could tell, which to her was a good thing. She didn't want him awake while she took out the stitches in his lips. As soon as she had that done, she picked the lock on the chain around his wrists and then tried to wake him.

"Sam, come on." Katie said as she shook Sam. "Nap time's over little brother, we gotta move now."

There was no response from Sam at all and Katie started to get a little freaked. There was no way she and Racheal could get him out if he didn't wake up.

"Sam!" Katie nearly yelled as she shook him harder. "Wake up!"

This time Sam did stir a little bit, but not enough.

"God damnit Sammy. WAKE UP!" Katie yelled as she slapped Sam across the face.

This time Sam opened his eyes. He stared at her for a second before he spoke.

"For a dream." Sam said hoarsely. "That felt pretty real."  
"You're not dreaming." Katie said trying to hide the smile on her face. "I'm really here this time. Racheal too. Do you think you can stand?"

"Where's Dean?" Sam asked.

"Outside with Bobby and a few other hunters." Katie replied. "He's probably about to lose his mind right now cause he hasn't seen us come out with you yet."  
"Yeah, I bet my dad had to tie him up or something after he got the charges placed." Racheal said as she came over to help Katie get Sam on his feet.

"Then let's go." Sam said as he tried to stand by himself and nearly fell.

"Easy, Sammy." Katie said as she and Racheal reached out to stop Sam's fall. "Lean on us ok. We got a lot of stairs to go up."  
"You know." Sam said more to himself. "I think that's the first time I've ever heard you call me Sammy."

"We can talk about that later." Katie said with a small smile. "Let's get out of here."


	10. Chapter 10

_I'm sorry you all had to wait so long for this update. I had to move suddenly. Thanks to everyone for their awesome reviews and I'm sorry I didn't send you all replies this time, it's a little hard to do on a cell phone. Well, it probably isn't, but I'm still learning how to use hat particular function. Thanks to everyone else just reading this too. I love to watch my hit counts go up. :D_

_**Chapter 10**_

Dean watched his sister until she and Racheal were out of sight. He hated that he'd let her go in there without him, but she was right. Katie and Racheal were better at sneaking than he was.

"So, where's these explosives?" Dean asked as he turned toward Bobby.

"Boy, you are getting soft." Bobby teased as he led Dean to his truck.

"I don't see your kid standing here." Dean shot back.

"Racheal can handle herself." Bobby said as he grabbed a bag from the back of his truck. "She's been hunting on her own since she was eighteen."

"Yeah, and Katie's been hunting alone since she was fifteen," Dean said. "Doesn't mean I have to let her keep doing it now. Especially when this is about Sam."

"You trust your sister, don't ya?" Bobby asked.

"Of course I do." Dean snapped. "What kind of a question is that?"

"Never mind. I was thinking of something yer dad said once." Bobby said. "Come on, we don't get these charges set up soon the girls are gonna be kicking our butts from here till next year."

Bobby handed out two charges to each hunter. Dean and a guy named Mark headed for the gate while the others spread out around it. Bobby had decided he wanted to make the biggest diversion he could as well as give Sam and the girls the biggest possible escape route if they were forced to head in that direction. Dean had just set his last charge when he stopped dead in his tracks.

"What's wrong kid?" Mark asked.

"They're getting shot at." Dean replied as he turned and ran back up the hill to where they'd left the vehicles.

"Who is?' Mark called as he ran after Dean.

Dean didn't answer the man behind him; he just kept running until he reached the Impala. He had just popped the trunk and was digging in the weapons box when Bobby caught up to him.

"Dean." Bobby gasped out. "What's wrong?"

"I gotta get to Katie." Dean replied as he found the other handgun he was looking for and stuffed it into his coat.

"What's wrong?" Bobby repeated.

"Some one's shooting at her." Dean replied as he slammed the trunk closed.

He took one-step in the direction the girls had taken off in, but Bobby blocked his way.

"Bobby, move." Dean said angrily.

"Just take it easy." Bobby said as he placed a hand on Dean's shoulder. "We new it wasn't gonna be completely easy for them to get to Sam. Just give them a chance."  
"You don't understand." Dean said as he tried to side step Bobby on the left and found Mark in his path.

"What don't I understand?" Bobby asked.

"My sister's been hit and she doesn't even know it." Dean replied.

"How would she not know she's been shot?" Mark asked.

"When she gets into full hunter mode, she shuts out everything else, especially pain." Dean replied as he tried to go around Bobby's other side and found himself blocked again. "All that matters is getting the job done no matter how badly she gets hurt."

"Well, that explains a few things." the man on Bobby's right said. Dean thought his name was Alan, but he wasn't sure.

Dean suddenly let out the breath he'd been holding as he felt the change in Katie. She had Sam and they were coming out. Bobby must've seen the change in him immediately.

"What is it Dean?" Bobby asked.

"They have Sam." Dean replied. "They're on their way out."

"How do you know that?" Alan asked.

"I just do." Dean replied.

"I think they're about to have s serious problem." Adam said.

Dean pushed past Bobby and Mark just in time to see four people head into the building Sam and the girls were in.

"Shit" Dean said.

"There were about six more in front of the ones you guys saw." Adam said.

"We don't have anyway to warn them." Alan said.

"_You got ten bad guys headed your way_." Dean said to Katie using their connection.  
"Yes we do." Bobby said as he looked at Dean.

"Katie already knows." Dean said. "But they're hauling Sam now. She'll be a lot more cautious and a lot more likely to get pinned down."

"I think now would be a good time to set off the explosives." one of the other hunters said as he came up the hill.

"Agreed." Dean said. "Bobby go for it."

Before anyone else could stop him, Dean took off running back down the hill toward the compound. The charges went off just as he reached the bottom of the hill and a fifty-foot section of the wall came down. He saw people running in every direction and hoped that no one would notice that he didn't belong there as he ran for his siblings. Just as he crossed the rubble that remained of the wall, a bullet went whizzing by his head. He tucked and rolled sideways, coming back up on his feet with two guns drawn.

Mark ran up to his side as Dean was looking for the person that had taken a shot at him.

"Don't stop now kid." Mark said. "I got the guy before he got you."

"Thanks." Dean called over his shoulder as he took off for the brick building and his siblings again.

Several more people tried to stop Dean from reaching his goal, but he was more aware this time and took them out easily on his own. He reached the door just as it burst open in front of him. Two people came out and stopped suddenly right in front of him. One was a woman, bleeding heavily from a wound in her abdomen. She was being held up by a man that also had a wound to his leg. The man started to raise a weapon, but Dean knocked it out of his hand and put his gun to the woman's head.

"Where are they?" Dean yelled.

Neither answered his question, so Dean cocked his gun. The woman began to whimper and the man looked as if his eyes were gonna pop out.

"Where are my brother and sister?" Dean asked just as Mark and Bobby caught up with him.

"On, on the sec- second level." The man stammered. "We have them pinned in the back room by the stairs."

Dean pushed the couple out of his way and ran into the building with Mark and Bobby close on his heels.


	11. Chapter 11

_Thanks to everyone reading and reviewing. I'm glad you like this so much. :)_

_**Chapter 11**_

Sam still wasn't sure how exactly he was standing, let alone nearly running, but he didn't really care. He was finally on his way out of his prison. They had just reached the bottom of the first set of stairs when Katie stopped suddenly. Sam felt her grip on his arm tighten and he and Racheal nearly crashed backwards to the floor.

"What's wrong?" Sam asked.

"We got company." Katie replied as she began to move again, but at a slower pace.

"Where?" Racheal asked.

"Above us." Katie replied.

"How do you know?" Sam asked as they started up the stairs.

"Dean told me." Katie answered. "There's ten of them headed for us."

"Yeah, they definitely had more than one psychic floating around this zoo." Racheal said. "So what do we do?"

"Find a place we can wait them out until Dean and the rest of the cavalry gets here." Katie replied.

The whole building suddenly shook, nearly sending them all tumbling back down the stairs.

"There they are now." Racheal said.

"Hell of a wake up call." Sam said.

"No one makes bombs like my girl Rache." Katie said.

"Remind me never to piss off your friends." Sam said with a small laugh.

They continued up the stairs and had just reached the top when a shot rang out from the outer room. Suddenly all the lights came on and Sam cried out as he was blinded. He'd been in the dark for who knows how long and the brightness hurt his eyes badly. He felt himself shifted toward his left and then lowered to the ground.

"Sam, stay here and don't move." Katie ordered. "Big brother will be here soon."

Sam nodded and kept his eyes shut. He heard several people shouting in the distance and something being dragged across the floor. The lights seemed to get dimmer through his closed eyes, so he slowly opened one. He found himself behind a desk and was about to brave a peak around it when the shooting began in earnest.

"Katie, Racheal, where are you?" Sam called over the noise.

"Sam, stay down." Racheal yelled.

Sam was a little panicked. Here he was caught in a shoot out and he didn't have a weapon. He probably wouldn't have done much good given that he couldn't see anything, but he still would've felt better with a gun in his hands. He was about to brave another look around the desk to locate his sister when Katie and Racheal came rolling around either side of the desk.

"They'd better hurry the hell up." Racheal said. "I'm almost out of ammo."  
"I've got three clips left and the .38." Katie said as she tossed a clip passed Sam to Racheal.

"Let me have your .38." Sam said as he held out his hand.

"You can't even see." Racheal said as Katie handed the gun over to him.

"I know, but since you two decided to join me back here I don't have to worry about shooting one of you." Sam replied.

Sam didn't even bother to look as he raised his hand over the desk and fired. He heard a woman cry out in pain and a small thud as something hit the floor.

"Nice shot." Katie said.

"Grace, remind me not to piss your little brother off." Racheal said with a laugh.

Sam heard Katie let out a laugh of her own as the three of them started to return fire. Suddenly, Sam heard Dean's voice over the noise.

"Would you three stop shooting at us?"

"I thought I heard extra shots." Racheal said.

Sam felt each of the girls grab his arms and he stood up slowly. He had to shut his eyes again because the lights got brighter, but that didn't seem to bother him much now that both his siblings were with him.

"God Sammy, what did they do to you?" Dean asked.

"I'm ok now." Sam said.

Sam was on the ground again before his brain registered that his legs had given out beneath him. Whatever strength his body had left was now completely gone. He tried to stand himself backup, but couldn't get his muscles to obey him. He started to shake uncontrollably as the fever and wound infection made itself known, along with the rest of his injuries.

"Sam." Dean and Katie yelled together.

"I-I think I w-w-wanna go to s-slee-eep now." Sam stammered.

"Sammy, you gotta stay with us a little bit longer." Katie said. "We're almost out."

"C-can't" Sam replied.

The pain became excruciating and Sam let himself slip into unconsciousness.


	12. Chapter 12

_Thanks for being so patient with me. Sorry I'm not posting as often as I usualy do, RL has been insane the last couple weeks._

_**Chapter 12**_

Katie tried to wake Sam a few more times, but nothing worked. She checked his vitals and found his pulse thready. His breathing was also becoming very shallow.

"We need to get him out of here right now." Katie said calmly.

"Same goes for you." Dean said.

"And Racheal." Bobby added.

Katie looked at her friend and noticed that she had an additional bullet wound in her left side to add to the one in her shoulder.

"You were holding him up?" Katie asked as she quickly examined her friend.

"Yeah." Racheal replied. "I was hoping we could make it out before I couldn't hold him anymore. Guess I was wrong."

"You did good." Bobby said reassuringly as he scooped up his daughter.

Katie ripped off one of her sleeves and pressed it to the wound in Racheal's side. Suddenly she was spun around and face to face with Dean.

"Your turn." Dean said as he checked Katie over.

"I'm fine." Katie said as she stepped away from him. "Sam's more important."

"How's Sam gonna feel if you drop dead trying to get him out?" Dean said softly as he stepped closer to her.

"Later." Katie said as she kneeled back down by Sam. "If I stop now, you'll have three of us to carry out of here."

"And what's stopping me from doing exactly that now?" Dean asked.

"Dean, drop it." Katie snapped. "Sam doesn't have time for this. If we don't get him to a hospital fast we're gonna lose him. He's got a serious wound infection."

"How is that possible?' Dean asked anxiously. "He was only missing for two days."  
"They accelerated it by keeping him drenched in salt water." Katie replied. "They also spent the last day beating the crap out of him. We gotta go, now."

They were all discussing the best way to get Sam out of the complex when Katie's phone rang.

"Hello." Katie said into the phone.

"You guys plan on coming out of there anytime soon?" Adam asked.

"We were just trying to figure out exactly how to do that." Katie replied.

"Well, everyone's cleared outta here cause the cops are on their way." Adam explained. "A neighbor called in saying they heard a bomb go off."

"Shit!" Katie exclaimed. "Get your butts in here and help us. Sam's down for the count and it's gonna take a couple people to get him out."

"On our way." Adam said.

Katie hung up her phone and answered everyone's questioning looks.

"Cops are coming." she said. "The rest of the bad guys have run off."

"Mark, grab Sam's legs." Dean ordered. "Katie, you sure you can walk?"

"Just grab our brother and let's go." Katie said already on her way up the stairs.

Katie kept Bobby and Racheal between herself and Dean. She didn't want him to see that he'd actually managed to snap her out of her "hunter mode" as he called it. She also figured that if she kept his mind focused on Sam instead of her that he wouldn't catch it through their connection either. She just wanted to get both of her brothers out of that place and then she'd stop moving.

Now she could feel every hole the bad guys had put in her. There was a new one in her shoulder, one in her shin, one in her left side, and one in her left arm between her shoulder and elbow. She knew she was bleeding pretty bad from all of them, but she had to keep moving until they had Sam back in the car and safe. Even as the dizziness hit her, she kept going as if nothing was wrong.

They made it outside just as Adam and the others opened the door to Sam's prison. Alan had managed to go back for his truck and get it next to the building. Katie watched them place Sam in the bed, then she climbed in next to him.

"Where'd the others go?" Katie asked.

"We told them to take off." Adam said as he handed Racheal up to her dad in the back of the truck.

"Good." Katie said. "Let's follow their lead then and run like hell."

They made it back to the Impala, Camero, and Bobby's truck fairly quickly. They transferred Sam into the Impala and Katie took the keys to Racheal's Camero out of her friend's pocket.

"You're not driving anywhere." Dean said.

"Sorry big brother, I leave this car here and Racheal will kill me." Katie said. "She's more in love with this car than you are with yours."

"I am not in love with my car." Dean grumbled as he patted the hood on his way around to the driver's side.

"Yeah, on second thought maybe you got her beat there." Katie laughed as she got into the car.

"_So what's the plan from here?_" Dean asked as Katie started Racheal's car and followed Bobby's truck down the road.

"_We split up and head for Nebraska._" Katie said. "_As soon as you cross the state line get Sam to a hospital. Call me when you do that and let me know what town you're in. I'll meet you there._"

"_I hate this plan._" Dean said. "_I know you're hurt Katie. I don't want you by yourself._"

"_I'll be fine._" Katie said. "_You just worry about Sam. He needs you more right now."_

"_You're not in much better shape._" Dean said.

"_Caleb has a safe house just over the state line._" Katie said. "_I'm headed there. Just call me when you get Sam settled and I'll come in._"

Katie suddenly saw the side road she'd been looking for and turned the car sharply. As soon as she finished the turn, she floored the accelerator and left Dean behind her in a cloud of dust.


	13. Chapter 13

_Here's the next chapter. Hope you like._

_**Chapter 13**_

Dean thought about following his sister, but a moan from Sam in the backseat quickly changed his mind. He decided he would call her as soon as the doctors took Sam to fix him up. He just hoped she could stay conscious long enough to reach her destination. Another groan from Sam made him push the gas pedal to the floor. He raced passed Bobby and made it to Dubois, Nebraska in one hour instead of two.

"I need some help." Dean yelled as he ran into the hospital. "My brother's been hurt."

"What happened to him?" a nurse asked.

"I don't know." Dean half-lied, "He was missing for a couple days. I found him on the side of the road all cut up."

"Where is he?" a doctor asked as he ran up to Dean and the nurse.

"In the back of my car." Dean replied.

The doctor and nurse followed Dean out to his car. The nurse ran back in a few seconds later and came back out with two orderlies and a gurney to put Sam on. Dean helped them get Sam out of the car and onto the gurney. He tried to follow them past the automatic glass doors, but another nurse stopped him.  
"You need to wait out here sir. I promise we'll take good care of your brother."

Dean nodded and walked far enough away from the doors that we wouldn't set them off and began to pace the floor. After an hour of pacing and several people telling him he needed to relax, Dean smacked himself in the head. He'd started swearing and cursing to himself as he walked out of the hospital. He stopped just outside the doors and dug his phone out of his pocket. He couldn't believe he'd forgotten to call and check on his sister.

He dialed Katie's number and waited for her to answer. When her voicemail picked up, he hung up and tried again. After the third time, he left a message.

"Katie, please call me and let me know you're ok."

Dean didn't even try to hide the fear in his voice. His brother was in the hospital after two days of torture and his sister was off on her own somewhere with at least three bullet holes in her that he could see, probably more. He was on the verge of panicking when his phone rang in his hand. He checked the caller ID and then quickly answered it.

"Are you alright?' Dean said.

"I'm fine Dean." Katie replied.

"Why didn't you answer when I called?" Dean asked.

"I was a little busy taking a bullet out of my arm." Katie replied. "How's Sam?"

"Doctor's are still working on him." Dean said. "Quit trying to change the subject. How are you?"

"I'm fine." Katie said.

"If you don't quit saying that I swear I'm gonna wring your neck." Dean said in an exasperated tone.

"Well, if you do that I won't be fine, I'll be dead." Katie laughed.

"Just answer the damn question." Dean said angrily.

"I took four bullets, but nothing serious." Katie replied. "Nothing a little rest and some tequila won't fix."

"Where are you?' Dean asked.

"In Salem, Nebraska." Katie answered. "Where are you?'

"About thirty minutes away from you in Dubois." Dean said.

"Ok. Give me about an hour and I'll be there." Katie said. "I just gotta finish stitching myself up and take a shower to get the blood off of me."

"You sure you're really ok?" Dean asked again.

"I'm good. I'll see you soon." Katie said.

Dean was about to say something else, but he heard a click that meant Katie had hung up her phone. He stared at his own phone for a second, then went back into the hospital and resumed his pacing across the floor. About forty-five minutes later, the doctor came out.

"How's Sam?" Dean asked anxiously.

"We're sending him up to the ICU now." the doctor said. "Some one did a real number on your brother mister…"

"Spencer." Dean finished. "I'm Dean Spencer."

"Well Mr. Spencer, your brother has a serious infection as well as a concussion and several broken ribs." the doctor said seriously. "If he can make it through the next forty-eight hours he should be just fine."

"I wanna see him." Dean said.

"So do I." Katie said as she walked up to Dean and the doctor.

"And you are?" the doctor asked.

"She's my sister." Dean answered.

"I'll have a nurse come and get both of you as soon as Sam's been settled in the ICU." the doctor said.

Dean watched the doctor walk away and then took a hard look at his sister. She was a little pale, but you couldn't even tell she'd been shot otherwise.

"What did he say about Sam?' Katie asked.

"That's we'll know for sure one way or the other in forty-eight hours." Dean replied flatly.

"He's gonna be fine, Dean." Katie said reassuringly.

"He didn't look fine." Dean said as he let his fear show just a little bit.

"I know." Katie said. "But we're not gonna lose him."

"How do you know?" Dean asked.

"Because we aren't." Katie replied. "I won't let him go that easy and neither will you."

The look on Katie's face made him feel a little bit better, but only a little. The only thing that would make him completely better was seeing Sam walk out of that hospital.

"Spencer family." a nurse called from the stairs.

"That's us." Dean replied as he practically ran over to her, Katie close on his heels.

"I'm here to take you to your brother."


	14. Chapter 14

_**Chapter 14**_

Katie followed her brother and the nurse up the stairs. She was glad that Dean was focused on Sam and in front of her because she felt like crap. She'd lost a little more blood than she originally thought and kept getting lightheaded. She nearly fell a couple times on the trip up the two flights of stairs, but caught herself. She was hurting pretty bad too, but hadn't taken any pain pills before leaving the house and driving to the hospital.

When they got to Sam's room, Katie stopped in the doorway and leaned against it. Sam's chart was hanging on a hook by the wall and she wanted to read it herself. Too many doctors in the past had kept information from her about Dean and John. There was no way she was gonna let it happen with Sam.

She watched the nurse check Sam's vitals as Dean sank down into the nearest chair. Dean looked completely exhausted. There were dark circles under his eyes and he looked a little pale. She watched him as he ran his hand through his hair and then he leaned closer to the bed Sam was in. That got Katie's attention focused on Sam.

Sam looked peaceful as he slept. The hospital blanket and gown covered most of the injuries he had. All Katie could see of them were some bruises to his face and arms. She spent a lot of nights watching both her brothers sleep since the accident in Missouri and still wasn't used to how much younger they looked, especially Sam.

When the nurse finally left the room, Katie reached over and grabbed the chart. It confirmed everything the doctor had told them earlier, so she quickly replaced it and went back to watching her brothers.

"You should try to get some sleep." Katie said to Dean.

"I'm alright." Dean said, never taking his eyes off Sam.

Katie shook her head slightly and then walked over to Dean. She placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it gently before she spoke.

"I'll watch over him." she said. "Get some sleep."

Dean looked up at her with a grateful expression before nodding his head. Katie watched as he tried to make himself a bit more comfortable. A few minutes later, he was fast asleep.

Katie sat in the chair on the opposite side of Sam's bed and placed a hand on his arm. She was a bit surprised at the heat coming off him so she got up and managed to catch a nurse just as she passed Sam's room.

"Can you bring me a bowl of water and a wash cloth?" Katie asked. "My brother has a very high fever and I'd like to try and get it down a bit."

The nurse gave Katie a strange look before nodding and continuing down the hall. Katie walked back over to her chair and on her way by Dean, gave his shoulder another light squeeze. She had just sat down again when the nurse came back in with her requested items. The nurse handed the bowl to Katie and she set it on the table next to her. She was wringing a bit of water out of the cloth when she noticed the nurse hadn't left.

"You should try to sleep." the nurse said. "You look tired."  
"I'm fine. "Katie replied. "They're all that matter."

The nurse gave Katie another odd look before scurrying out of the room to go about her business. Katie thought that was a bit odd, but didn't put much more thought into it than that. She had just started to wipe off Sam's face when her little brother began to whimper in his sleep.

"Ssssh, it's ok Sammy." Katie whispered. "It's ok little brother. I've got you."

Sam seemed to settle a bit at Katie's words, but she could tell he was still dreaming. She knew he was gonna have nightmares about what had been done to him, but she hoped that it wouldn't be this soon. She thought about having the doctor give Sam a sedative, but decided against it. The nightmares were part of the healing process and Katie knew that from personal experience so she let him be. About thirty minutes later Sam was thrashing around in the bed and talking in his sleep. Katie was amazed that he hadn't woken Dean up yet.

"No." Sam said. "No, leave them alone."

It took a second for Sam's words to register in Katie's mind, then it hit her. Sam wasn't dreaming about what happened to him, he was dreaming about what happened to her. Katie tried again to calm him down, but Sam just started to thrash around more and he was getting louder as the nightmare went on.

"I said stop it!" Sam yelled.

Dean woke up then. He looked from Sam to Katie and then tried to wake Sam.

"Sam." Dean said as he shook Sam's shoulder. "Sammy wake up."

"Sam, come on." Katie said as she shook Sam's other shoulder. "Sam!"

"KATIE!" Sam yelled as he sat blot upright in the bed.

Katie was up and sitting on the bed next to Sam in a flash. Dean was also standing with one hand on Sam's shoulder and the other behind his back.

"I'm right here Sammy." Katie said as she caught her little brother's eyes. "I'm ok."

"You sure?" Sam asked

Katie could see in his eyes that he wasn't quite sure of what was going on. His eyes were glazed a bit and he looked very confused.

"I'm sure." Katie said. "You can even ask Dean."

"It's ok Sam." Dean said. "Go back to sleep."

Sam looked up at Dean for a second, but instead of trying to lie back down on the bed, he pulled Katie into a very tight hug. Katie was having a little trouble breathing, but she didn't try to get away. Instead, she wrapped her arms around Sam's shoulders and started stroking the back of his head. Sam started to relax his hold a bit and finally he was asleep with his head on Katie's shoulder.

"Dean." Katie said quietly. "He's asleep. Help me get him back down on the bed."  
Dean nodded and together they got Sam back down onto the pillow. Katie didn't move from the bed until she was sure Sam wasn't having another nightmare. Then she sat back down in her chair and began to lightly rub Sam's arm. After a few minutes she looked up at Dean, who was still standing by Sam's bed.

"You ok?" Katie asked her older brother.

"Things are gonna be off with him, aren't they?" Dean asked in return.

"Yes." Katie replied. "I wasn't expecting him to have nightmares about Laura and me though. This may be harder on him than I thought."

"So how do we help him get over this?" Dean asked.

"We don't" Katie replied. "What happened to him, isn't something you get over Dean. It's something he has to learn to live with."

"How do we help him do that?" Dean asked, obviously worried and scared.

"That depends on him." Katie replied. "Either he'll be like Laura and he'll need to talk about it to make it easier, or he won't."

"How did you learn to live with what happened to you?" Dean asked.

"I'm still working on that." Katie replied. "Right now we need to take care of him."

"Katie." Dean said.

Katie looked at her older brother and saw the concern on his face. She just shook her head at him and then turned her attention to Sam, who had begun dreaming again. This was definitely going to be a long night.


	15. Chapter 15

_thanks to everyone still reading this. I'm glad you all like it. Thanks to everyone leaving reviews too. I know I'm terrible by not answering them, but I do try. Special thanks to SciFiNutTX for playing beta and laceym for choosing the torture subject._

_**Chapter 15**_

Sam awoke from his latest nightmare to find Katie sitting on the hospital bed just like the last six times. This time though, instead of Dean being on his other side, no one was there.

"He just went to go grab a shower and some coffee." Katie said before Sam could ask the question. "He'll be back in a few minutes."

Sam just nodded and lay back against the pillows. He was still exhausted, but he didn't want to sleep anymore. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw either himself or his sisters being hurt. His body was screaming at him from all the moving around anyway.

Sam lay quietly staring at the ceiling for a few minutes and then decided to take advantage of the situation and ask Katie a few things that had been bugging him.

"Katie, what happened to you and Laura after dad left you in Kansas?"

"Not a lot." Katie replied.

"Katie please?" Sam begged. "I have to know if what I saw in my head really happened."

Sam looked at his sister and saw the conflict in her eyes. She looked away from him when she finally noticed he was watching her.

"Katie?" Sam said quietly.

"Yeah, Sam. It happened." Katie replied sadly. "All of it."

Sam watched as Katie suddenly stood and began pacing the room. He was amazed at how quietly she walked.

"God." Katie suddenly exclaimed. "This wasn't supposed to happen. You were never supposed to know."

"Know what?" Sam asked. "What happened to you after dad left you in Lawrence?"  
"Yes." Katie said.

Sam could tell she was getting distressed over the fact that he had found out about her past and he wanted to know why.

"Why?" Sam asked. "Why wasn't I supposed to know?"

"Because we promised." Katie replied. "We all promised that you wouldn't find out."  
"Whose we?" Sam prodded. "Promised who?"  
"Me, Dad, and Dean." Katie said. "We promised Laura. She wanted to protect you from it. She didn't want you look at us the way Dad did. She, she just, I don't know. She put all of that on Dean, gave him every detail she could remember, but thought you would never be able to handle it. She thought you would blame yourself."

He watched her pace the room for a few minutes more. The look on her face had him a bit worried about her. She looked like she was ready to bolt at any second.

"Katie, come here please?" Sam said quietly.

"Why?" Katie asked as she stopped her pacing.  
"Just come over here." Sam replied.

They stared at each other for a second and then Katie did as he asked, sitting down in the exact spot she was in before he started asking questions.

"Look." Sam said. "I know it wasn't my fault. Like you said, I was just a baby when it happened. I just wish you would've told me yourself."

"I promised." Katie said sadly, as she refused to meet his eyes.

"Why is it so important to you to keep your promises?" Sam asked.

"Because they didn't." Katie replied.

"Who didn't?" Sam said.

"Mom and Dad." Katie replied. "Mom said she would always be here for us, always take care of us, then she died. Dad promised he'd keep us together and he didn't. He promised he'd back for us and he didn't come until it was too late. He promised he'd tell you about us and then bring us home. The list goes on and on. I don't wanna be like them. If I make a promise I have to keep it."

Sam didn't really know what to say. He knew the only reason she'd told him that was because he'd caught her at the right moment. She was exhausted and hurt and most importantly, she felt guilty about what had been done to him. He knew he was taking advantage of the situation, but damnit she was his sister and he barely knew her.

Sam looked at her to ask another question, but it died on his lips when he saw the tears welling up in his sister's eyes. Instead, he pulled her into a hug. It hurt like hell, but he ignored the pain for as long as he could. When he finally did release her, he could see that she'd regained her composure and she knew he'd just hurt himself.

"You need to lay back down Sam." Katie said. "I'm gonna ask the doctor for a sedative to help you sleep."

"I don't want one." Sam protested.

"I know you don't." Katie replied. "But their not gonna let you out of here until you get some real rest."  
"I-I don't wanna be alone." Sam stuttered. He was suddenly scared to death of not having his brother or sister within arm's reach.  
"You won't be." Katie replied. "Dean's been standing out in the hall for like five minutes."

Sam looked to the doorway just as Dean walked around the corner and into the room. He was followed by a nurse and a doctor.

"How ya feeling Sam?" the doctor asked.

"I wanna leave now." Sam replied.

"Maybe in a few days." the doctor replied. "You have a serious infection and we'd like to get that under control before we release you."

"My sister can do that." Sam replied, suddenly feeling very grumpy.

"I'm well aware of that" the doctor said. "But she's the one that said to keep you here whether you liked it or not."

Sam gave Katie a dirty look and she returned it by sticking her tongue out at him before walking out of the room.  
"Where's she going?" Sam asked his brother, back to being scared again.

"Easy Sam." Dean replied. "She's just going out to grab a shower of her own and to check on Racheal. She'll be back soon."

Sam suddenly felt very sleepy. It was then that he noticed the doctor had come closer and was pulling a syringe out of his IV.

"That, that was sneaky doc." Sam said through a yawn.

The doctor smiled at him and then did a quick check of the machines attached to Sam.

"Well, everything else looks ok." the doctor said. "A nurse will be in, in a couple of hours to change Sam's bandages."  
"Thanks doc." Dean said.

Sam watched the doctor leave the room. It was getting harder and harder to keep his eyes open, but he really didn't wanna sleep. At least not until Katie got back. He just felt safer knowing both of his siblings were in the room, in spite of the nightmares.

"D-ean." Sam slurred. "W-want K-Katie here too."

"I know." Dean said soothingly. "Just get some sleep. We'll both be here the next time you wake up."

Sam nodded and then finally stopped fighting and let the medicine do it's job.


	16. Chapter 16

_I'm glad everyone's still with me on this. I hope to have it finished and all posted soon. I'm just kinda in the middle of another move. One of these days I'll actually settle down._

_**Chapter 16**_

Dean kept staring at the door long after Katie left. He had just reached the hospital when he'd felt her sadness and her panic. He'd raced up the stairs thinking something had happened to Sam. He heard them talking when he got closer to the room and stopped himself from going in. He felt a little bad about eaves dropping, but he wanted to know what Sam had said to get her worked up like that.

It was never that easy to get Katie to open up like that, no matter what the circumstances. It wasn't until Sam had hugged her and she started to calm down that she even noticed Dean was close by. Then it was like she flipped a switch and shut her emotions off. He tried to ask her what was wrong, but her reply was that he should worry about Sam.

There was something off with her and Dean knew it. She was trying to block him out of her head and she'd never done that before. Dean decided he needed to talk to Racheal. If being forced to relive the first six years after mom was killed had shifted something in Katie, then Racheal might recognize it. He hated that he needed to ask some one outside the family for help with his sister, but circumstances made it necessary. He quickly dug his phone out of his pocket and dialed Racheal's number.

"Hello."

"Racheal, this is Dean."  
"I knew that." Racheal replied. "That's what caller ID is for silly. How's Sam doing?"  
"He's gonna be ok, physically at least." Dean replied. "Mentally it's gonna be awhile."

"He'll be fine." Racheal said reassuringly. "He's got you and Grace to get him through. Speaking of which, how's your stubborn as hell sister?"

"That's why I'm calling." Dean said. "Something's off with her."

"Off how?" Racheal asked. The concern in her voice made Dean feel a bit easier.

"I don't know really." Dean replied. "She's trying to block me out of her head. What I do pick up is that she's scared, nearly all the time."

"Yeah, I was afraid that was gonna start again." Racheal replied.

"What was gonna start again?" Dean asked.

"Listen Dean," Racheal said. "When your dad first left your sisters with Caleb, Katie was afraid of everything. She was wound so tight that if anyone so much as said boo they'd better duck at the same time or they were gonna get hit. It was worse if she had a weapon in her hand. Caleb got cut up a couple times"

"She never told me that." Dean said.

"I know." Racheal said. "She didn't want you to worry. She wanted you to think everything was fine so you could concentrate on Sam. She's probably gonna try the same thing now."

"She doesn't have to do that." Dean said sadly.  
"I know, but it's what she does." Racheal said. "She's also gonna put all her energy into you and Sam like she did with Laura unless you can find some kind of distraction for her. Caleb gave her the cars to work on and that helped immensely."

"Thanks Racheal." Dean said gratefully. "I really do appreciate this."  
"Dean, there's more." Racheal said. "She still hasn't really dealt with Caleb's and Pastor Jim's deaths yet. She was really close to them. She may bolt if you guys stay in one place to long, which she'll insist on for Sam. Her emotions are gonna be all over the place as well. One second she'll be fine and then next she'll be screaming at the top of her lungs for no reason."

"Yeah, I saw some of that already." Dean said. "I hate to say this, but I think I need some help here."

"Dad and I are in Salem Nebraska at one of Caleb's safe houses." Racheal said. "Why don't you bring them here when Sam is released from the hospital?"

"Actually, that was the plan." Dean said. "Katie is probably on her way there now. She wanted some distance between us for a bit so she was gonna go there to take a shower and check herself out."

"Alright then." Racheal said. "I'm gonna send Dad back with her then. He's grounded me to the house until the bullet wounds are healed."

"Thanks again Racheal." Dean said. "We'll see you in a couple days."

Dean hung up the phone and then settled in to watch his brother.

--

Katie practically fled from the hospital as soon as she was outside. Instead of going the motel room Dean had rented up the street, she got in Racheal's car and drove back to the safe house in Salem. She needed to put some distance between herself and her brothers for a little while. She also needed to check her own injuries and call Racheal.

She was a bit surprised to see Bobby's truck sitting in the driveway when she pulled up. She wasn't expecting Racheal and Bobby to still be in the area, but the more she thought about it, the less surprised she was. Bobby probably wanted a place to hole up until he was sure Racheal was ok and Racheal hated hospitals. That girl wouldn't stay in a hospital if her life depended on it.

Katie parked her friend's car next to the truck and went inside. Katie had been hoping for a little time to herself, but found she was glad Racheal was there. She found them sitting at the kitchen table. Bobby was buried in a book and Racheal was just hanging up her phone.

"I figured you guys would be back in South Dakota by now." Katie said with a smile.  
"Nope." Racheal said. "The old man here wouldn't let me get any farther from the hospital in Falls City than this."

"I am not old." Bobby said without looking up from his book. "I'm just older than you."

"If you say so old man." Racheal teased.

Katie smiled at the banter between Racheal and her father. Suddenly she felt very sad that she and John never had that kind of relationship.

"Grace." Racheal said. "You ok?"

"I'm fine, I just need a shower and a stiff drink." Katie replied.

"Well, you do smell funny." Racheal laughed.

Katie took her coat off and tossed it over Racheal's head, then took off for the nearest bathroom.


	17. Chapter 17

_This is going to be the last update for a week or two cause I'm in the process of moving into my very own house. I'll try to update before that, but no promises. Thanks to everyone still readig this. I'm glad you all enjoy it._

_**Chapter 17**_

Katie washed up quickly and then sat in the bottom of the shower until long after the water turned cold. She really just wanted to curl up and sleep for a week, but wouldn't allow herself to do so. Sam had seen enough of her memories. She was more afraid of how he'd react if he found out about the things she'd done after escaping her prison. She'd hurt too many people and knew she wouldn't be able to stand it if he had the same fear in his eyes when he looked at her that John and Laura had.

The last thought had her thinking about Laura. She should've been there. Sam had been her baby from the moment he was born. Mom had said so and neither of them got to see him grow up.

Katie suddenly shook her head and stood up. She shut the water off got out of the shower. She never thought about stuff like this. Course she didn't really stop to think about much of anything that had happened to her and her family, unless it involved Dean and now Sam. She was afraid she'd fall apart if she stopped to think, kinda like she was doing now.

Katie dressed quickly and then left the bathroom. She found Bobby and Racheal right where she'd left them in the kitchen.

"Bout time you got out of there." Bobby said. "Your brother's been calling. He said Sam's awake and refuses to eat or allow the doctor to touch him until you get back."

"Oh crap." Katie said.

"Come on kid, let's go before he walks out of there to find you." Bobby said.

"What about Racheal?" Katie asked.

"She's staying here." Bobby said sternly as he looked at his daughter. "You still got her car keys right?"

"Bobby, that's not gonna stop her and you know it." Katie said with a roll of her eyes.

"It will if I say it will." Bobby said. "She's promised to stay put until we get back."

"She's not a little kid anymore you know." Katie said as she walked toward the door.

"She's my kid and the two of you seem to need reminding of that." Bobby said. "Now get in the truck."

"Yes sir, Uncle Bobby sir." Katie said as she saluted him and then ran out the door.

She watched from the cab of the truck as Bobby grumbled to himself all the way out. She made sure she was facing forward when he got in and she was trying very hard not to laugh. She watched from the corner of her eye as he stuck the key into the ignition and then smacked her in the back of her head.

"Ow, what was that for?" Katie asked.

"You were the closest." Bobby replied. "I swear you Winchesters and my Racheal are going to put me into an early grave."

"Love you too Bobby." Katie said as she gave him her best 'win Bobby over' smile.

Bobby rolled his eyes at her and then started the truck. Katie sat quietly and played with the buttons of her shirt the whole way to the hospital. She figured if she concentrated on that, she wouldn't think of the other stuff.

She walked solemnly next to Bobby until they got to the floor Sam was on, then she went skipping down the hall and into her brother's room. Dean was standing by the bed trying to coax Sam to eat. Katie bounced right by him to the other side of Sam's bed and then she sat on the bed in what had become her usual spot.

"Now Sammy." Katie said cheerfully. "What's this I hear about you not eating?"

"Just lodging a protest." Sam said quietly while looking at his lap.

"Why?" Katie asked in the same cheery tone.

"Cause you weren't here and I want out." Sam replied as he finally looked up at her.

"I'll make you a deal." Katie said. "You eat all your lunch and don't put up a fight while the doctors do their little tests and I'll see about springing you out of here after we get the results back."

Sam smiled a bit and then picked up the spoon and began to eat the green jello first. Katie caught a storm of emotions from Dean and she shook her head trying to clear them out. She was having a hard enough time dealing with her own emotions at the moment and didn't wanna deal with his too.

"_What's with you?_" Dean asked in her head.

Katie just shrugged and went back to tormenting that poor button until Sam was finished eating. A nurse and the doctor came in a few minutes later and took Sam for his tests.

"You ok?" Dean asked when the only other person left in the room was Bobby.

"Yeah, fine." Katie replied quickly. "Why?"

"Because you're acting way too damn happy." Dean replied.

Katie suddenly found herself a little angry at Dean's words. Why did he always have to question everything she did anyways? It's not like he was her father or anything.

"Well, what do you want me to do?" Katie snapped. "Be all sulky and broody all the damn time."

"Woh, easy." Bobby said. "Just slow down there girlie."

Katie looked from Bobby to Dean. She couldn't understand where that had just come from.

"I'm sorry Dean." Katie said. "Guess I'm still a little on edge."

"Sis, you're wound so tight your shaking." Dean said. "I can see it."

Katie held her hand out and watched it intently as it moved up and down of it's own accord. She tried to make it stop, but finally just clenched her fist and dropped her arm back down to her side.

"You haven't slept since before we rescued Sam a day and a half ago." Dean said. "Maybe Bobby should take you back to Salem so you can get some sleep."  
"No!" Katie said loudly. "I'm fine."

She didn't notice she had started pacing the room until Dean was standing in front of her with his hand on her shoulder.

"You need to sleep." Dean said. "Please?"

Katie looked at her older brother for a second before shaking her head no. She could see Dean was really worried about her, but Sam needed to come first right now.

"Let's, let's get Sam to the house in Salem and then I'll go to bed. Ok?" Katie said.

Katie watched Dean's shoulders sag slightly as he let out a sigh before he nodded. Katie reached out, squeezed his hand reassuringly, and then sat down in her chair by Sam's bed. Now that button was in for the fight of its life as Katie was determined to torment it till it died.


	18. Chapter 18

_I'm so sorry for the long wait. I hope everyone is still interested in this. Thanks to everyone reading and reviewing._

_**Chapter 18**_

Dean watched Katie sit down and start fiddling with a button on her shirt. He was more convinced now that she was starting to lose it. Racheal had warned him, but he still wasn't completely prepared for it. He was convinced that if he didn't find a way to help both his siblings they were all gonna go nuts.

Dean looked up at Bobby and the older man made a motion with his head for Dean to follow him outside.

"Where you going?" Katie asked without looking up from her button.

"We're just gonna go down to the cafeteria for a sec." Bobby replied. "We'll be back soon."

"K." Katie said.

The two older hunters walked out of the room, but Dean stopped a few feet from the doorway.

"You coming?" Bobby asked when he noticed Dean had stopped.

"I don't wanna leave her alone." Dean replied. "That's happened to her far too much in her life already."

"You'll know if something happens right?" Bobby asked.

"I don't know." Dean said. "She's blocking me out."

"Ok." Bobby said. "We'll stay right here then."

Dean let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding and then leaned against the wall. He was completely worn out. Sam woke up about thirty minutes after Katie had left and Dean had spent the entire time trying to calm him down until Katie got back. Apparently, the sedative they'd given him wasn't strong enough. Sam had somehow convinced himself that Katie was being hurt by some one and the doctor had talked about putting restraints on the youngest Winchester. Dean wouldn't allow that so he had to deal with the consequences.

"How you holding up?" Bobby asked.

"Ok." Dean replied. "I don't think Katie should've told Sam she'd get him out of here though. The doc said forty-eight hours and it's only been twelve."

"I think she just wants to get Sam someplace where she can protect both of you better." Bobby said. "This place is too wide open. Anyone could walk in and take off with one or both of you boys."

"It wasn't her fault." Dean said flatly.

"Wasn't yours either." Bobby said.

"I'm the oldest." Dean said. "It's my responsibility to look out for them."

"According to her it's her responsibility to look out for you and Sam cause she promised Laura and cause she's the only girl left in the family." Bobby said.

"Sounds like my girl." Dean said with a small smile.  
"You know." Bobby said with a shake of his head. "It still amazes me how much you and that sister of yours are alike."

"That's what Dad used to say." Dean said sadly.

Dean looked down at his feet and that's when he noticed he was playing with a button on his shirt just like Katie had been when they left her in Sam's room. Dean stood up straight from the wall and walked back toward the room. He stopped in the doorway and cocked his head to one side. Katie was asleep.

Dean let out a sigh of relief and then walked over to his sister. He gently lifted her out of the chair and laid her in Sam's empty bed. He figured he could always move her when they brought Sam back in. He stood looking at her for a few minutes, then lightly brushed her cheek before rejoining Bobby in the hall.

"Everything ok?" Bobby asked.

"Yeah, she's finally asleep." Dean replied.

"Hey Dean, I got a weird question for ya." Bobby said.

"What's that?" Dean said.

"Why do you and Katie always do that?" Bobby asked.

"Do what?" Dean said.

"Every time one of you is sleeping and the other has to walk past or leave the room, she squeezes your shoulder or you brush her face." Bobby said. "Why do you do that?"

"When she first started hunting with me and dad, every time dad got near her she'd jump." Dean replied. "Then she'd throw a punch at him or pull a knife, unless I was in the room with her. If dad sent me out on an errand, I'd do that so she'd know I was leaving and that everything was ok. I didn't know she was doing the same thing."

"It's a habit I picked up after the wreck in St. Louis when you were in a coma for three months." Katie said from the doorway of Sam's room.

"I thought you were asleep." Dean said.

"I was." Katie replied. "That's why we gotta go. Sam's missing."

"What do you mean Sam's missing?" Dean said starting to panic.

"He freaked out when they went to do one of the tests." Katie replied. "It reminded him of where we found him, so he punched a couple orderlies and a security guard and ran off."

"I can't believe this." Dean yelled as he turned and punched the wall.

"Katie, you search around for him while Dean and I go talk to the doc." Bobby said.

"Ok." Katie replied.

Dean and Bobby headed for the stairs that would take them to the CT room. Dean couldn't believe this was happening. They had just got Sam back and now he was missing again.


	19. Chapter 19

_**Chapter 19**_

Sam wandered around the hospital for a bit, searching for his brother and sister. He was laying down on a gurney when they took him to the dark room so he had no clue how to get back to them. He also found it a bit strange that no one was stopping him to ask if he was lost. That didn't bother him too much though because he just wanted out of the damn hospital. That's when the idea came to him.

Sam followed the signs as best he could to the nearest exit. He got turned around a couple of times, but managed to find the visitors parking lot and Dean's car. He was a bit surprised that Dean had left the doors unlocked, but also grateful. He'd found the perfect place to hide from the doctors and be found by his siblings. He climbed into the backseat of the car and waited for Dean and Katie to find him. He tried to fight it, but he ended up falling asleep anyway.

--

Katie headed out of the hospital and straight to the Impala. Dean and Bobby had taken off before she had a chance to tell them that she knew exactly where Sam had gone. She thought about calling Dean's cell after she got to Sam, but decided against it. They probably would have brought some of the hospital staff with them and Sam didn't wanna be found by them.

Sam wanted out of that hospital so she was gonna take him. Dean was going to be highly pissed off, but she knew how to deal with that. He'd cool off about her taking Sam once he found them both safe and sound with Racheal in Salem. The part about her taking his car was a whole different matter. Katie was gonna have to do a little persuading to get him to forgive her for that.

The car was rocking slightly as Katie reached it. She'd hoped to get there before Sam fell asleep, but she wasn't quite fast enough. She walked around the car to the door closest to Sam's head and opened it. Sam was having another nightmare and she wanted to wake him up before she hit the road.

"Sam. Wake up." Katie said as she gently shook him. "Sammy it's me. Time to wake up little brother."

"NO!" Sam yelled as he tried to sit up and smacked his head on the top of the car.

"Ssssh, easy Sammy." Katie said soothingly. "It's ok. You're alright now."

"Where's Dean?" Sam asked.

"He's inside looking for you." Katie replied. "What do you say me and you blow this popsicle stand?"

"We can't leave without Dean." Sam stated. "He'll kill us if we take his car and not tell him."  
"No," Katie said. "He'll kill me. You're not in your right mind cause you have a concussion and just smacked your head again. I'll just tell him you were asleep when I found you and I didn't bother to wake you up before we left."

"You can't lie to Dean." Sam said. "He'll know."  
"Yeah, well he'll get over it eventually." Katie said. "I hope."

"Where are we going and how's he gonna find us?" Sam asked.

"We're going to one of Caleb's safe houses about thirty minutes from here." Katie replied. "I can call Dean once we're on the road and Bobby can bring him to us."

"Does Bobby know where this house is?" Sam asked.

"I hope so." Katie replied with a small smile. "That's where we left his daughter when he brought me back here."

Sam smiled a bit at Katie's last statement and then his face got all serious again. Katie knew he was thinking about her proposition. She knew she was hitting below the belt, but played her last card.  
"You can always go back into the hospital and finish getting those tests."

"Oh, hell no." Sam said loudly. "Let's get out of here, but you gotta call Dean as soon as we leave the parking lot."  
"Deal." Katie said.

Katie quickly closed the rear passenger door of the Impala and got into the driver's seat. She took out her set of keys to the car, started the engine, and drove away. She waited until they were at a stop light a block away and then called Bobby's phone instead of Dean.

"Hello." Bobby answered.

"I found Sam." Katie said.  
"Where is he?" Bobby asked.

"He's in the back of the Dean's car." Katie replied.

"And where are you?" Bobby asked suspiciously.  
"Uh, I'm driving Dean's car." Katie said. "We're on our way back to the house in Salem."

"You're what?" Bobby yelled.

"I'm taking Sam to Salem." Katie replied. "Just grab Dean and we'll see you in a bit."

Katie quickly hung up the phone before Bobby could yell at her some more or worse, hand the phone to Dean. She spared a quick glance at Sam in the rearview mirror as she pulled onto the highway. He was fast asleep and nightmare free so far. Katie figured that the sound of the big engine had the same effect on Sam that it did on the rest of the family, then she remembered that Sam had spent most of his life in the Impala. He probably felt safer there than anywhere else in the world.

Katie's phone rang several times during the thirty minute trip, but she didn't answer it. She wanted a chance to get Sam settled in before she dealt with their pissed off older brother. She was really gonna get it and she knew it, but Sam didn't feel safe where he was and Katie didn't like the way the one nurse kept staring at her. Things were just better this way, she hoped.


	20. Chapter 20

_**Chapter 20**_

Sam woke up the instant Katie shut off the car, but didn't move at first. He almost asked her to turn it back on so he could go back to sleep, but his body was cramped and he needed to move. He was nearly sitting upright when the pain hit him full force. The pains meds he'd been given at the hospital had worn off and he cried out as he slumped back down into the back seat.

"Sam." He heard some one call as the door next to his head was opened.

He wanted to answer, but he couldn't. Everything hurt and it was getting worse. He felt something cold rubbed against his shoulder and then something like a pin was stuck into his arm. A few seconds later, there was a strange burning sensation that seemed to flow through his body and then the pain lessened. He heard his brother call his name, but didn't want to move because someone was rubbing his back and it made him feel better with every stroke.

"Ssssh, it's ok Sam." Katie said soothingly. "As soon as the medicine has a chance to kick in we'll take you in the house."

Sam nodded and willed himself to relax even further. He knew he was safe because he was in the car and his siblings were close by. He would've stayed there forever, but some one decided it was time for him to move. The back rub stopped and he was slowly turned onto his back. That made the pain flare up in his back again, but it was gone before he had a chance to react to it.

"Sam." Dean said. I'm gonna lift you up and try to slide you out of the car, but you gotta help. Ok?"

"M-kay." Sam replied.

Sam felt Dean slide his arms under and around his shoulders. Sam pushed with his feet and slowly came out of the car. A minute later, he was upright and leaning against his brother. He felt some one place his other arm across their shoulders and looked over to see Bobby on his other side.

"Where we going with him?" Bobby asked.

"There's a bedroom just off the living room with a hospital bed." Katie replied. "Once we get him in there I can take care of the rest."

"I'm going to kill you." Dean said.

"I know, but it's what he wanted." Katie replied.

Sam tried to support his own weight as Bobby and Dean led him into the house, but his feet didn't wanna cooperate. He settled for concentrating on moving them and let Dean and Bobby hold him up.

"How ya feeling Sammy?" Dean asked him half way to their destination.

"Fuzzzzzzy." Sam slurred.

"Come again?" Dean asked.

"I f-feel f-fuzzzzzy." Sam repeated.

Sam giggled at the way he sounded. He didn't mean to make the "z" last that long, but he liked the way his tongue felt when he did it.

"That's the morphine talking." Katie said with a small laugh.

"How much did you give him?" Bobby asked.

"A pretty high dose." Katie replied. "I wasn't expecting the meds they were giving him through the IV's to wear off that fast."

"I'm really starting to think you two planned this from the get go." Dean said.

"No plaannnninnng." Sam said. "Jussst rruunniing"

"Yeah, and a couple thrown punches." Katie laughed. "Not to mention guys falling down and pulling IV's out."

Sam smiled. He realized at that moment how much he liked to hear his sister laugh and that it didn't happen nearly enough.

Before he knew it, Sam was sitting on a bed and Dean was lifting his feet off the floor. Sam looked at his surroundings and instantly decided he liked this room a lot better than his last one. This room was blue instead of off white and it smelled like flowers instead of disinfectant. Most importantly, Sam felt safe there. The only people around him were people he knew and trusted instead of strangers in uniforms.

"Ok, everybody out." Katie said. "I gotta set his IV's and stuff up and I need room to work."

"Don't wan' 'em." Sam protested.

"I know." Katie said. "But you're not gonna get better without them so I gotta do it little brother."

"Oh, ok." Sam said with a goofy smile.

He watched as Dean and Bobby left the room and he was left alone with Katie. Sam watched as Katie rummaged through various cabinets and drawers in the room. Suddenly a thought hit him.

"You look like mom." Sam said bluntly.

"That's what Dean tells me." Katie said as she walked over to him.

"I bet she was like you." Sam said dreamily.

"No, that was Laura." Katie replied. "I'm too, uh, well not like her."

Sam saw a bit of sadness in his sister's eyes as she inserted the IV into his arm. He wanted nothing more at that moment than to hug his sister and make her feel better, but she was playing with sharp objects so he decided against it.

It took about half an hour to get Sam's IV's in place and change all his bandages. As soon as she had everything put away in its cabinets, he called her over to him.

"What is it Sam?" Katie asked when she got next to him.

Sam just pulled her onto the bed next to him and wrapped her up in a big bear hug.

"It's ok." Sam said. "You're not as bad as you think you are."

Sam felt her relax a bit in his hold. She must've really needed that hug cause she didn't make any attempt to get away from him for a long time. It wasn't until Dean came in the room that he noticed she'd fallen asleep.

"Ssssh." Sam said to his big brother. "She's sleeeeping."

"Really?" Dean asked quietly.

"I think." Sam replied. "I can't really see her head."

Dean walked over to the side of the bed Katie was on and brushed her face before turning her so Sam could see.

"Move your arm Sam." Dean said. "I'll take her upstairs so you can get some sleep of your own."  
"No," Sam said. "I wanna keep her."

"She's not a teddy bear Sam." Dean said.

"She's kinda cute like one." Sam said as he smiled at Katie.

"Neither one of you are gonna be very comfortable that way." Dean said.

"If that were true, she wouldn't have crashed out so easy." Sam said. "Why don't you go lay down on that couch over there and take a nap?"

Sam caught his brother's one eyebrow raised looked. Sam smiled and then made a shooing motion with his hand. He expected a protest, but didn't get one. Instead, Dean went and lay down on the couch. Sam watched his older brother until he was sure Dean was asleep and then settled into the bed. He pulled Katie closer to him to make sure she wouldn't fall off the bed, then went to sleep himself.


	21. Chapter 21

_**Chapter 21**_

Dean woke up just after dark. He must've been more tired than he thought. He sat up to check his siblings and was a little surprised at what he saw. Sam had his entire body wrapped around Katie to the point that all Dean could see of her was her shoes. He left them to sleep and went to go find Bobby and Racheal.

The room was filled with food smells the second he opened the door. He thought about shutting it, but changed his mind. He decided it would be better to leave the door open in case Sam and Katie needed him. He found Bobby and Racheal in the kitchen cracking jokes at each other and making dinner.

He stood in the doorway watching them and a thought crossed his mind. If Dad and Laura were around at this moment, they'd probably be doing the same thing right now. For the millionth time in his life, he wished Dad had never left the girls in Nevada. He was sure things would've been so much easier on all of them growing up if Dad hadn't been so pigheaded and afraid of his daughters.

He was completely lost in his own thoughts when a towel came flying through the air and landed on his head.

"What the.." Dean said as he pulled the towel off his head.  
"I asked you if you had a nice nap." Racheal said with a laugh.

"Uh, yeah." Dean replied.

"You alright kid?" Bobby asked.

"Yeah, just a little tired." Dean said.

"Still." Racheal said. "Dude you slept for like four hours."

"As compared to the two days he probably didn't sleep at all." Bobby said as he tossed a french fry at his daughter.

Racheal promptly caught the flying piece of food and pegged Bobby right between the eyes. The look on Bobby's face had Dean and Racheal doubled over with laughter.

"What's going on?" Katie asked as she rubbed her eyes.

"Just picking on Dad." Racheal replied.

"Oh, I wanna play." Katie said. "But first, are Sam's clothes in the car?"

"Yeah, why?" Dean asked.

"Cause he would like to come out here and eat with us." Katie said.

"You need the keys?" Dean asked as Katie walked to the front door.

"Nope, got one." Katie replied just as the door closed.

Dean stared at the door for a second then he heard Sam calling for him and Katie. He quickly ran for his brother's room before Sam really started to panic.

"Sam, what's wrong?" Dean asked, slightly out of breath.

"I thought you left." Sam replied sheepishly.

"Katie just went out to grab you some clothes." Dean replied. "She'll be back in a sec."

"I'm back already." Katie replied.

Dean jumped at Katie's statement. That girl was just way to damn quiet.

"I hate it when you do that." Dean said as he turned to look at his sister.

"You should pay closer attention." Katie said with a smile.

"I saw her." Sam added.

"You're facing the doorway." Dean said.

"You're gonna have to go shirtless Sam." Katie said as she walked past Dean. "But I brought you some sweats."

"Um, Katie." Sam said, as he turned a little red.  
"Don't worry, I'm not staying." Katie said. "Dean's gonna help you get dressed and then change the bandages."

"Where are you going?" Sam asked, trying and failing to hide his fear.

"I'm going into the kitchen to bug Bobby." Katie replied. "I haven't reached my quota for smacks to the back of my head yet today."

"He'd better not touch you." Sam said angrily.

"Sam, it's ok." Katie said soothingly. "It's just a game Bobby and I play. He won't hurt me."

Dean watched has Sam and Katie had a little staring contest, then Sam nodded and Katie left the room. Things had shifted so fast between them that Dean's head was still trying to catch up. Sam and Katie had gone form teasing him, to teasing each other, to Sam being scared, to Katie making him feel better, to Sam trying to protect Katie in barely more than a minute.

"What was that?" Dean finally asked his brother.

"She's been hurt enough." Sam said.

"I meant the whole conversation." Dean said. "It shifted so fast I lost track of what was going on."

"You and Katie do that to me all the time." Sam said. "Difference is that I only hear about half the conversation."

"We do not." Dean protested.

"Do to." Sam shot back. "I guess I just understand her a little better now so we can do the same to you."

"Oh, that's so not fair." Dean said. "Using my own sister against me."

"Yeah, payback's a bitch isn't it?" Sam laughed.

"Come on Sam. We gotta get you all pretty for your dinner debut." Dean teased.

"Whatever." Sam grumbled.

Dean helped Sam get his pants on and then helped him sit on the bed so Dean could change the bandages on Sam's front and back. When Dean pulled the old bandages off, Sam's front, he was shocked at what he saw. This was his first good look at Sam's injuries so he wasn't expecting him to look that bad.

"Oh Jesus Sammy." Dean gasped out.

"It's not that bad." Sam said flatly. "I think my back is worse, but I can't see it so I don't know."

"I'm sorry." Dean said as he got the stuff he needed to fix up his brother off the counter where Katie had left them.

"For what Dean?" Sam said. "You didn't do this."

"Never should've let you walk out of that bar alone." Dean said.

"You didn't know some one was waiting to grab me." Sam said. "It's ok."

"Well," Dean said with a smile. "You'll have a bunch of cool scars to show the chicks."

"Pickups are your thing Dean, not mine." Sam said.

"You know, the last time you said that, you got the girl." Dean teased.

"I know." Sam said with a smile. "That's why I said it."

"Bitch."  
"Jerk."

Dean laughed and then finished fixing up Sam's front. They were both quiet as he did Sam's back. Dean was thinking that this one had been way, way too close a call. He needed to keep a better eye on Sam so this would never happen again.

"You done yet?" Sam asked. "I'm hungry."

"Yeah, I'm done princess." Dean replied. "You're good to go."

Sam stood up, and then promptly fell back onto the bed.

"Not so fast, Sammy." Dean said as he walked around to help his brother stand. "Just cause the meds Katie's giving you make you think you're better, you're not."

"I hate this." Sam whined.

"I know, but at least you're out of the hospital like you wanted." Dean said. "Speaking of which, why did you want out of there so bad?"

"Wasn't safe there." Sam said quietly.

"You sound like Katie." Dean said.

"Well, maybe she's rubbing off on me." Sam said with a small smile.

"Good, then maybe you'll stop being so girly." Dean teased.

Sam punched Dean lightly in the shoulder and the two walked out of Sam's room to go eat.


	22. Chapter 22

_Only two more chapters to go and this one is done. THanks to everyone reading and reviewing. Special thanks go out to SciFiNutTX for playing beta and laceym for picking Sam as my torture subject._

_**Chapter 22**_

The first couple of days went pretty smoothly. Sam wasn't having nightmares as often as he was that first night and Katie wasn't having them at all. Dean suspected that it was because she wasn't sleeping again, but he wasn't sure how to approach her on the subject. Sam was healing pretty well, in spite of the fact that he and Katie wouldn't let Racheal use her power to accelerate the process.

It was the day that Katie removed Sam's IV's that things went a little south. Dean and Bobby went into town to get some groceries and other supplies. Katie had said something to him about her and Racheal doing a little sparring out back to alleviate their boredom, but he didn't think anything of it until he and Bobby got back. They found Sam sitting in the kitchen staring at his hands. There was no sign of Katie and Racheal in the house, so Dean figured they were still out back.

"Hey Sammy," Dean said. "The girls out back still?"

"No." Sam said distantly and without looking up at Dean.

"Well, where did they go?" Bobby asked as he set down one of the grocery bags on the table.

"They're in the other room." Sam said. "Katie's patching Racheal up."  
"Those girls always get carried away when they're playing." Bobby said. "How banged up did my kid get?"

"She's got a bullet wound to her left leg." Sam replied.

"A bullet wound?" Dean asked. "Who shot her?"

"I did." Sam replied.

"You what?" Bobby exclaimed.

Bobby set down the other bag he was holding and stormed off toward the living room. Dean heard a door slam a few seconds later, meaning Bobby was now in the little hospital room.

"Sam, what happened?" Dean asked his brother as he sat across from him.

"I-I don't know what came over me Dean." Sam said.

"Start from the beginning." Dean said quietly.

"I was working on the laptop, trying to find another job, but it was too quiet with you gone and the girls outside so I went to go find them." Sam said. "I didn't know what they were doing. I walked out the back door just as Racheal landed a punch on Katie. I got so mad I couldn't see straight and walked back into the house. I found a gun in my duffel bag upstairs, walked back out of the house just in time to see Racheal land another punch and then I-I pointed the gun at her and pulled the trigger."

"Good thing you're a bad shot." Racheal said as she, Katie, and Bobby walked into the kitchen.

"If Katie hadn't warned you, you'd probably be dead." Sam said as he laid his head on his hands.

"Sam, it's my fault." Katie said as she placed a hand on her little brother's shoulder. "I should've known better. I should've told you what we were doing, or not done it at all."

"Look at it this way Sam." Racheal said as she knelt down next to Sam and put her hand on his other shoulder. "How many people on this planet can say they've been shot by three Winchesters and lived to talk about it?"

"Wait, which other two members of my family got you besides Sam?" Dean asked.

"Your sisters." Racheal replied.

"What are you talking about?" Sam said as he looked over to Racheal.

"Oh, I forgot about that." Katie said with a small smile. "You really are a glutton for punishment when it comes to my family."

"Would some one please tell me what is going on?" Bobby asked.

"I second that." Sam and Dean said together.

"Well," Racheal said. "Grace and Daisy were pretty messed up after your dad left them at Caleb's. For the first week or two, they wouldn't let each other out of their sights for more than a few minutes. They wouldn't even talk to anyone but Heaven and me. I'm still trying to figure out why that was, but anyway, when they started to relax a little bit and get used to being around the rest of us, Caleb started training them."

"He started us with the weapons and we picked that up fast, thanks mostly to Dean, so he figured he could move us on to the hand to hand stuff." Katie said. "He had Laura go first against Racheal cause Rache was his best student at the time. I was sitting outside cleaning guns. Racheal got a hit in on Laura and I grabbed the nearest one and shot her."

"No one ever told me about this." Bobby said angrily.

"It was just a flesh wound Dad." Racheal said. "It's not like she killed me."

"All I saw was that she hurt my sister and I couldn't let her get away with it." Katie said sadly.  
"It wasn't your fault." Racheal said. "You were beat all to hell as a kid. Caleb should've been more careful and he told you the same thing back then."  
"Yeah, you think he would've learned the first time too." Katie said with a small laugh.

"Wait, He did the exact same thing, but switched you and Laura?" Dean asked.

"Well, not exactly the same." Katie said.

"I was sparring with Katie two or three weeks later and Laura was up in their bedroom, which happened to look out over the practice field." Racheal said as she tried to suppress her laughter. "She shot me in the hand from that window with a .22 pistol."

"Now I remember you telling me about that." Dean said. "Dad and I were there the day after. You said that's why you had to get that Camero done."

"I can't believe you got shot twice in less than a month while at Caleb's and he never said a damn word about it." Bobby ranted.

"I begged him not to." Racheal said. "I was afraid you'd take me away. Grace, Daisy, and Heaven were the only friends I had."

"Anyway." Katie said before Bobby and Racheal could start fighting. "The point is Sam that it kinda runs in the family. I didn't think you would actually do the same thing."

"That's no excuse." Sam said. "I hurt her."

"Sam, I'm fine really." Racheal said reassuringly. "It's just a scratch. You were just looking out for your pigheaded sister. I understand that, especially given my previous experiences dealing with her."

"Oh thanks Rache." Katie said.

"Your welcome sis." Racheal replied. "Hey Sam, what say you and I go watch TV or something and these three can make dinner?"

"You're really ok?" Sam asked.

"Yes." Racheal replied. "Now let's go find something fun to do."

Racheal held her hand out for Sam to take, but he just stood up and the two walked into the living room.

"Hey Rache." Katie called before they got too far away.  
"Yeah." Racheal called back.

"Don't make out with my brother or I'll deck you." Katie said with a laugh.

"I'll behave." Racheal said with a laugh of her own. "Besides, he's probably not as willing as your older brother was and still is."

Bobby got this completely horrified look on his face, which sent Dean and Katie into fits of laughter, then he gave Dean a dirty look as he suddenly remembered catching them. Dean gave Bobby his winning smile and then snuck out the back door.


	23. Chapter 23

_Ok, so after going back through this from beginning to end I discovered a loose end or two I needed to wrap up so there may be 2 or three more chapters after this one instead of just one. Hope that's ok with you guys._

_**Chapter 23**_

A few days later, Dean walked out of the house and got into his car. Sam and Katie were driving him crazy. They had both been bugging him for the last day or two to get back on the road. He knew Sam's wounds were well on their way to healing, as were Katie's, but that's not what was stopping him from getting back to work. He was now completely convinced that Katie hadn't slept since the first day they were in Salem.

He had to admit it though, the girl put on a pretty good show. She certainly had the others convinced she was ok, but he knew her better. It was also getting easier and easier for him to read her the more tired she got. That's why he knew her breakdown was coming.

Dean was still thinking about Katie when the passenger door of his car opened. He looked over and watched Sam get in and close the door.

"So." Sam said. "You wanna tell me the reason we're still here."

"Not really." Dean replied as he went back to staring out the windshield.

"I'm fine, Dean." Sam said. "Honest. I haven't had a nightmare in two days. Katie and I are both ready to get out of here."

"I know you are, Sam." Dean said flatly.

"But you don't think Katie is?" Sam asked.

"I know she isn't." Dean replied.

"She seems fine to me." Sam said.

"She puts on a good show." Dean shot back.

"Ok." Sam said. "What makes you think there's something wrong with her?"

"She's not sleeping." Dean replied.

"She never does." Sam said.

"No, she usually sleeps about four hours a night." Dean said. "She hasn't slept at all since we first got here."  
"How do you know?" Sam asked.

"Because I know her." Dean replied. "Better than anyone. And it's not just because she doesn't want you to see anymore of her memories. There's something else."

"So why don't you just ask her?" Sam asked.

"Because she won't tell me, at least not yet, and I'm not taking her out on a hunt until I know she's ok." Dean replied.

"What if we gang up on her?" Sam asked. "Think that would get her to talk?"

"Nope." Dean replied. "She'd probably take off then and I'm not letting her do that again."

"So what do we do?" Sam asked.

Before Dean could answer, the sound of glass shattering filled the air and then a sudden thunk as something bounced off the top of the Impala. Both brothers jumped out of the car and headed for the house. Dean stopped as he felt something under his foot. He looked down and then bent over to pick up Katie's phone.

Dean looked up at the window just in time to see his sister turn and sink down onto the bed under the window. The emotions he caught from her had him racing into the house. He managed to squeeze past Sam on the stairs and beat everyone to Katie's room. He found Katie with her knees pulled up to her chest and rocking back and forth on the bed. Dean sat down next to her on the bed and pulled her into his arms.

"It wasn't your fault." Dean said soothingly as the others ran into the room.

"Yes it is." Katie said quietly. "All of it is."

"What do you mean?" Dean asked. "There was no way you could've known how the demons would react once we had the colt."

"That's not what I meant." Katie said as she pulled away from him.

"Then what?" Dean asked.

"Nothing."

Katie slid over to get off the bed, but Dean grabbed her arm to stop her. A look of panic crossed her face for a second and he heard her plea in his head to just let it go, but chose to ignore it. Instead he pulled her back to him before looking up at the others.

"Everybody out." Dean said. "Except for you Sam."

Dean watched Bobby and Racheal leave and then motioned for Sam to close the door and take a seat. When Sam sat on the other bed in the room, Dean lifted Katie's head up and made her look at him.

"Now what happened that you think is your fault?" Dean asked.

"Everything." Katie whispered.

"It isn't." Dean said.

"Yes it is." Katie yelled as she pulled away from him and jumped up to pace the room. "If I had done something that night then none of this would've happened."

"What are you talking about?" Sam asked.

"Mom." Dean answered. "She's talking about Mom."

"How is what happened to Mom your fault?" Sam asked.

"Because I didn't do anything." Katie snapped. "I didn't even try. If I had done something to save her that night, none of this would've happened."

"Katie." Dean said calmly. "You were two years old."

"That's no excuse." Katie replied.

"Just stop." Dean said as he stood and stopped his sister's pacing. "There was nothing you could've done and even if there was, you probably would've died right along with her."

"And a lot of other people would be alive right now because they never would've been involved with us." Katie said.

"You don't know that." Sam said soothingly.

"Don't I?" Katie yelled. "Caleb and the others seem pretty dead to me."  
"Because they knew Dad." Dean said. "Not because of you."

"And if I had done something to save Mom, then Dad never would've met them." Katie replied.

"Alright, that's enough." Sam said as he grabbed Katie's arm and led her back onto her bed. "You can't keep going around in circles like this and you can't blame yourself. You said that the demon had both you and Laura pinned to the wall. How could you've done something to save her if you couldn't move?"

"I, I um." Katie stammered.

"Exactly." Dean said as he sat down on the bed next to Katie.

"But…" Katie said.

"But nothing." Sam interrupted. "You couldn't move, so there was absolutely nothing you could've done to save her. No one blames you for what happened to mom, so stop blaming yourself."

"Dad did." Katie whispered.

"What?!" Sam and Dean said together.

"Did he say that to you?" Dean asked, his anger rising.

"No." Katie said with a shake of her head.

"Then why would you say something like that?" Sam asked.

"Because he left us." Katie replied.

"Laura told me in one of the letters Dean gave me that he wasn't given a choice about that." Sam said.

"The first time." Katie replied. "That doesn't explain the second time"

"Katie, there were a lot of reasons he left you girls with Caleb, but none of them had to do with Mom's death." Sam said.

"That's not entirely true." Dean said. "The biggest reason he left you girls was because of Mom. It was because it hurt him too much."  
"What do you mean?" Katie asked.

"You and Laura, you look so much like her. Seeing the two of you nearly killed him every time, that's why he stayed away."

"Then why did he always ask Laura if she wanted to come home when he talked to her on the phone every week?" Katie asked.

"Because she needed him and you didn't." Dean replied. "At least that's what he thought at the time."

"I didn't" Katie said.

"Because you're too stubborn and independent for your own damn good, like Dad was." Dean replied with a small smile. "Probably worse."

Dean was rewarded with a small smile and a punch in the arm from Katie. Before he could suggest it, Katie leaned up against him and was asleep instantly.

"Hey Sam." Dean said quietly.

"Yeah." Sam replied.

"Can you get up and then pick her up so I can move?" Dean asked.

"She asleep?" Sam said.  
"Nope, she's fake snoring." Dean replied sarcastically. "My arm is falling asleep here Sammy, just get her already."

Dean watched Sam lift Katie up and then he moved off the bed. He kept his eyes on Katie until well after Sam laid her on the bed and stood next to him.

"You wanna go?" Sam asked.

"Nope." Dean replied.

"Me either." Sam said.

"Poker?" Dean asked with a grin.

"Sure, but no cheating." Sam replied.

Dean settled himself on the other bed and began to shuffle the deck of cards he found on a dresser. He had just finished dealing when Sam asked him a question.

"Hey Dean, what was that all about?"

"What was what all about Sam?" Dean asked in return.

"Katie. Why is she blaming herself for mom?" Sam asked.

"Lack of sleep is a part of it. Dean replied as he finished dealing the cards. "You gonna play or what dude?"

Sam sat down on the bed across from Dean and picked up his cards. Then he asked another question.

"So, what's the rest of it?"

"Some of the people she grew up with at Caleb's are blaming her for what happened to him and Pastor Jim." Dean replied.

"But she wasn't anywhere near them when they were killed." Sam said.  
"I know that Sammy, but they were killed to get Dad's attention and she was with him." Dean replied. "It's one of those guilt by association things. How many cards you want?"

"That's not fair." Sam said.

"I know." Dean said. "But you said it yourself once, grief can make people do crazy things. Now, are you gonna play or do you wanna keep talking and wake her up?"

"Oh right, I need two cards." Sam said.


	24. Chapter 24

_**Chapter 24**_

Sam sat watching his sister sleep. It had been nearly three days and he was starting to get a little worried. Katie woke up just long enough to go to the bathroom and ask where Dean was before she was out again. Dean told him she did the same thing when he was in the room.

He still couldn't quite get over how much Katie looked like their mother, except for her eyes. Now that she'd stopped wearing the blue contacts her eyes were the same green as their father and brother. He was concentrating so hard he didn't notice Katie was watching him until a pillow landed on his head. Katie's laughter filled the room as Sam grabbed the pillow off his head and tossed it behind him.

"How long you been awake?" Sam asked.

"A few minutes." Katie replied. "What day is it?"

"Thursday." Sam replied. "You hungry?"  
"I'm starving." Katie replied whole-heartedly. "But first I want a shower."

"Good, cause you smell funny." Sam said with a smile. He was rewarded for his statement with another pillow to the head.

Sam headed downstairs to the kitchen. He found Dean, Bobby, and Racheal going over newspapers from three different states.

"She awake?" Dean asked.

"Yeah." Sam replied. "She's gonna take a shower and then she'll be right down. Found a hunt yet?"

"We've found several." Racheal replied. "We've just been waiting for Katie to wake up before we left."

"You sure you kids are gonna be ok?" Bobby asked.

"We'll be fine Bobby." Dean replied. "Katie should be back to normal now."

"What about you boys?" Bobby asked.

"We're fine." Sam and Dean said together.

"Liars." Racheal teased.

"I think we just need a break from you two." Dean said with a smile. "You're crazy."

"Have you looked in a mirror recently?' Racheal asked.

"Yes." Dean replied. "And I look good."

"You're so full of it." Katie said as she stepped off the stairs.

"That was fast." Sam said.

"You learn to be fast when there's a demon bursting through your door every few hours." Katie replied.

"What does that mean?" Dean asked.

"I'll tell ya later." Katie replied. "We outta here or what?"

"You sure you're ready?" Sam asked.

"I was ready days ago." Katie replied. "But my brothers decided I had to sleep first."

"Good thing too." Dean said. "You were getting downright bitchy."  
"I thought I was that way all the time." Katie said with a smile.

"If you guys are done playing around, Racheal and I are packed and ready to go." Bobby said as he stood from the table.

"We should get packing ourselves." Katie added.

"Tomorrow." Dean said. "We're gonna stay one more day."

"Why?" Sam and Katie said together.

"Because I want to." Dean replied. "So get over it."

"You just wanna make sure Sam and I aren't gonna flip out again." Katie said.

"Maybe I'm enjoying the time off." Dean said.

"There's that too." Sam said.

"Well now that you guys have that decided." Racheal said. "You ready to go dad?"

"You kids take care of each other and try to stay out of trouble." Bobby said.

"That would ruin all of my fun." Dean said with a grin.

"I was afraid you were gonna say that." Bobby said as he rolled his eyes.

"Thanks for everything Bobby." Katie said.

Sam watched Bobby and Racheal head out the door and then turned to his brother.

"So what's the plan for today?" Sam asked.

"I thought we'd go out tonight." Dean said.

"I'm not so sure that's a good idea." Katie replied.

"We're running low on cash." Dean said. "And besides, it's not like we're going home with anybody. I don't know bout you sis, but I don't plan on letting Sammy here outta my sight."

"Sam, do you wanna do this?" Katie asked.

Sam looked back and forth between his siblings. He couldn't deny that he was a little wary of the idea, but he also needed to prove to himself that he wasn't gonna let his latest ordeal disrupt his life any more than it already had. He thought about it for a few minutes and then decided what the hell.

"Sure." Sam replied. "I think we all need to get out for awhile."

"Good." Dean said. "Katie do you happen to own a dress?"

"Uh, no." Katie replied. "Why?"

"Cause I wanna try something." Dean said with huge smile. "So let's go get you one."

"What are you up to?" Sam and Katie said together."

"One: It's a surprise, and two: I've never seen you in a dress." Dean replied.

"Awe crap." Katie said with a sigh. "I'll play along, but I get to pick the dress."

Sam followed his siblings out the door and into the car. He still couldn't quite wrap his mind around them going to buy a dress and he was still worried about them going out , but at least it should be entertaining.


	25. Chapter 25

_**Chapter 25**_

"I can't believe you wouldn't let us see what dress you got." Dean complained as they walked back into the house.

"You know" Katie said. "I just remembered something."

"What?" Dean asked.

"You have seen me in a dress before." Katie said.

"When?" Dean asked as he sat on the nearest couch.

"Sam's high school graduation." Katie replied as she headed for the stairs.

"That doesn't count." Dean said. "That was a sensible, frilly dress. I want a see what you look like when you really wanna get guys."

"Why?" Katie asked.

"Because I think you would make an awesome distraction while I take all their money." Dean replied with a grin.  
"That's what this is about?" Katie said. "You wanna use me to hustle pool?"

"We are so gonna have a problem when we get to the bar." Sam said to himself as he sat down next to Dean.

"Why do you say that?" Dean and Katie said together.

"Because there are gonna be guys all over her." Sam said. "And there's no way either of us are gonna let them get with in a foot of her."

"So, what are you two gonna wear?" Katie asked, changing the subject.

"Same thing we always do." Dean said. "Why?"

"No way." Katie said. "If I have to get dressed up then so do you. You don't have to wear suits, but you better go find something that isn't full of holes."

"That's not fair." Dean said as Sam started laughing.

"Dean, I'm wearing a dress." Katie said. "I'll be happy to trade you."

"Alright, alright." Dean said as he stood up from the couch. "We'll go pick something up while you make yourself all pretty."

Katie went upstairs to her room, grabbed a small black bag out of her duffel, then went into the bathroom. She decided that if they were gonna make her look like a girl that she was gonna act like one and make them wait for her as long as she possibly could. Two hours later she was walking down the stairs and listening to Dean complain about her taking so long.

She didn't say anything as she came down because she wanted to see them first. She was a little amazed to see them wearing black jeans and matching black silk shirts. She was wondering how Sam had talked Dean into it when Sam turned around to look at her.

"Yep." Sam said as he stood up. "There's definitely gonna be a fight tonight."

Katie was wearing a short, spaghetti strap black dress that was a little tight so it completely showed off her figure. The one thing she hadn't changed was her shoes. Instead of heels, she was wearing her black steel-toed boots. Dean had been pacing across the room so when she finally caught his attention his jaw looked like it was gonna hit the floor.

"Would you two stop looking at me like that?" Katie said as she felt herself blush.

"Ok, I take it back." Dean said. "Go change."

"What?" Katie exclaimed. "No way. This was your bright idea so you have to deal with it."

"Yeah, but I didn't think…." Dean trailed off.

"No surprise there." Sam popped off.

"Shut up." Dean said. "You're so not helping."

"He's supposed to?" Katie said as she headed toward the door. "You guys coming or what?"

--

Sam sat with his back against the bar and his elbows resting on top of it. Dean and Katie were running a couple tables on the other side of the room and he was totally enjoying the show. They were standing in line to play Katie and most were playing Dean so they could try to cop a feel on her as she walked past them. Katie never even gave them a chance to beat her and the losers looked completely happy to lose their money to her.

He had to admit he was definitely having a much better time than their last outing, mostly because of Dean's reaction every time a guy walked up to Katie. Sam was convinced that Dean was gonna climb out of his skin any second. Sam didn't blame him, especially when one of the skeezier looking guys tried to make a move on his sister, but that's why he was sitting on the other side of the bar.

"Excuse me fellas." Katie said suddenly. "I need another beer."

Several of the guys around her offered to get one for her, but she shook them off.

"It's alright." Katie said. "I need to go talk to my brother anyway."

Sam spun around on his barstool so Katie wouldn't see him watching and waited for her to walk up to him. A minute later, she was standing on his left side and leaning against him slightly.

"You doing ok Sam?" Katie asked.

"Just enjoying the show." Sam replied.

"Me beating everyone, or Dean's misery?" Katie said with a laugh.

"If I said both I'd be lying." Sam replied with a smile.

"You didn't warn him at all, did you?" Katie said.

"Nope." Sam replied. "Wanted him to learn his lesson the hard way."

"That is so cheating." Katie said as she elbowed Sam.

"Not my fault I've seen you dressed like this when we were at Stanford." Sam replied.

"True." Katie replied with a nod. "It's his and Dad's for sending me there so he definitely had this coming."

"You know dad never would've let you out of the house dressed like that." Sam said thoughtfully.

"I'm still surprised you and Dean did." Katie said. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have some more money to win."

Sam turned slightly to watch his sister walk back over to the tables and make sure no one grabbed her. He caught a look from Dean and decided to take his brother another beer. He had just ordered it and was waiting for the bartender to bring it to him when he felt a hand on his shoulder.


	26. Chapter 26

_Well here it is, the very last chapter. Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing. Special thanks to laceym and SciFiNutTX as always._

_**Chapter 26**_

Sam spun around ready for a fight. He was surprised to see a rather short woman with blond hair and a startled expression standing there.

"I-I'm sorry." the woman stammered. "I didn't mean to scare you."

Before Sam could answer, Katie and Dean were standing on either side of him and he knew they were ready for a fight.

"Who are you and what do you want with our brother?" Dean growled.

"I-I'm a nurse at the hospital in Dubois." the woman answered. "I recognized him and just wanted to see how he was doing."

"What's your name?" Katie asked.

"Kaitlynn." the nurse replied.

"You're the nurse that kept staring at me while we were there." Katie said.

"I'm sorry about that." Kaitlynn replied. "You looked really familiar to me. It wasn't until the day your brother disappeared from the hospital that I figured out who you were."

"Oh yeah." Dean snapped. "And who's that?"

"Katherine Winchester." Kaitlynn answered. "I took care of you for awhile when I worked at a mental institution in Kansas."

"Holy crap." Katie whispered.

"Lady, you must have her confused with some one else." Dean said angrily. "My sister was never locked up."

"I-I'm sorry for…" Kaitlynn started.

"Yes I was." Katie interrupted.

"What?" Sam and Dean said together.

"When?" Dean asked.

"When I was nine." Katie replied. "Kaitlynn here saved my life."

"It was after Jeremy, wasn't it?" Dean asked. "When I didn't hear from you for about a month?"

Sam watched Katie nod. He could tell she didn't really want to talk about any of this. Whether it was just in general or because he was standing there he wasn't sure, but he decided to try getting the woman to leave.

"Well, Kaitlynn was it, thanks for checking up on us. I'm fine; my sister took real good care of me." Sam said. "If you don't mind we'd like to go back to our fun."  
"Of course." Kaitlynn replied. "Glad you're both ok."

Sam watched the woman walk back to a booth by the dance floor and then turned to his sister.

"Are you ok?" Sam asked Katie.

"Yeah" Katie replied. "I swear I always run into the weirdest people."

"You know." Dean said. "Sooner or later we're gonna have to talk about this."  
"Not tonight." Sam said. "What do you say you two stop picking on the suckers and we play each other for awhile?"

"Sammy." Dean said. "You suck at pool."

"I made the mistake of saying that once." Katie replied. "He cleaned my clock."

"Ok, but none of these losers better try to make any more moves on you, sis or I'm gonna hit some one." Dean said.

"Go set the table up while we get the drinks Peanut Brain." Katie said with a laugh as she pushed Dean toward the tables.

"Yeah, whatever Brat." Dean mumbled as he walked off.

Sam turned and placed an order for two more beers, to go with the one he'd ordered before Kaitlynn showed up. He was standing there quietly waiting when Katie finally spoke.

"Hey Sam." she said quietly.

"Yeah?" Sam said.

"Thanks for that." Katie replied.

"You're welcome." Sam said. "But Dean's right. You're gonna have to tell us about this eventually."

"I know." Katie replied. "But right now we gotta go kick Dean's ass."

"I agree." Sam said with a smile. "It's about time I showed him up at this game."

Sam grabbed two of the beers while Katie grabbed the third and the two youngest Winchesters headed for the pool tables.


End file.
